/,  /3.  /7 


^^  PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Purchased   by  the  Hamill   Missionary   Fund. 


BR  125  .M2  1917 
Mabie,  Henry  Clay,  1847- 
1918. 
. . .  The  unshaken  kingdom 


The  Unshaken  Kingdom 


By  Henry  C.  Mabie,  D.  D. 


The  Unshaken  Kingdom 

izmo,  cloth  -  •  net  ^i.oo 

The  Divine 
Reason  of  the  Cross 

A   Study  of  the  Atonement  as   the  Ra- 
tionale of  Our  Universe, 
izmo,  cloth     -  -         -         net  6oc. 

The  Meaning  and 
Message  of  the  Cross 

A  Contribution  to  Missionary  Apolo- 
getics,     izmo,  cloth        -         net  ^1.25 

"  One  who  has  been  a  secretary  of  a  missionary  society 
for  as  many  years  as  has  Dr.  Mabie  should  be  prepared  to 
make  a  contribution  to  this  subject." — Missionary  Herald. 

Method  in  Soul  Winning 

on  Home  and  Foreign  Fields,  i  zmo, 
cloth  -  -  -         -        net  75c. 

"Dr.  Mabie  shows  clearly  that  all  one  man  can  do  for 
another  is  to  put  him  on  the  clue  and  that  thereafter  each 
soul  as  thus  started  is  sure  to  find  God  disclosing  himself. 
Dr.  Mabie  writes  as  clearly  as  a  lawyer  presenting  a  brief." 

—The  Standard. 

Now: 

The  Missionary  Watchword  for  Each 
Generation,  or  the  Principle  of  Immediacy 
in  Missionary  Work.      Paper,  net  -  loc. 


Lectures  delivered  under  the  Holland   Foundation 
at  the  Southwestern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary 


The  Unshaken  Kingdom 


By  \<?:^., 

HENRY  C.  MABIE,  D.D.,  LL.  D. 

Author  of  **The  Divine  Reason  of  the  Cross"  "The 

Meaning  and  Message  of  the  Cross y"  *' Method  in 

Soul  Winnifig,"  *'From  Romance  to  Reality, 

An  Autobiography,^  etc. 


New     York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 


London 


AND 


Edinburgh 


Copyright,  I9i7»  ^7 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Dedicated  to  the 

Faculties  and  Students  of  Christian 

Educatio7ial  histitutions  in  the 

Sou  th  land  of  A  rnerica 


nr 


Foreword 

HIS  volume  by  Doctor  Mabie  con- 
■  sists  of  the  lectures  delivered  to  the 
students  and  faculty  of  the  South- 
western Baptist  Theological  Seminary  on 
The  Lewis  Holland  Lectureship.  The  other 
lecturers  on  this  foundation  were  George  W. 
Truett,  D.  D.,  W.  L.  Poteat,  LL.  D.,  and  John 
R.  Sampey,  D.  D.  This  Lectureship  was  es- 
tablished by  the  Rev.  Lewis  Holland,  San 
Antonio,  Texas,  a  consecrated  and  faithful 
minister  of  the  Gospel.  He  w^as  deeply  de- 
voted to  the  plain  teachings  of  the  Word  of 
God  as  interpreted  by  the  Missionary  Bap- 
tists. He  desired  that  this  Foundation 
should  contribute  to  the  publication  of  that 
body  of  truth. 

These  lectures  by  Doctor  Mabie  were 
greatly  enjoyed  by  the  large  body  of  Chris- 
tians who  heard  them.  It  is  confidently 
believed  that  a  careful  reading  will  be  most 
profitable   and    inspiring.     No  one  can  fol- 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

low  the  thoughts  of  this  great  missionary- 
philosopher  and  statesman  without  receiv- 
ing permanent  spiritual  enrichment. 

L.  K.  Scarborough. 
Fort  Worthy  Texas, 


Contents 

I.  The  Things  Which  Cannot  Be  Shaken  i  i 

II.  Providence  Grounded  in  Redemption  33 

III.  The  School   of   Christ  and  Other 

Schools 49 

IV.  The  Cure  for  Agnosticism        .        .71 

V.  The  Clue  to  Certainty  in  Religion  .  95 

VI.  The  Paradoxical  Element  in  Chris- 

tianity    Ill 

VII.  The  Cosmic  Import  of  the  Cross  of 

Christ 133 

VIII.  The    Ultimacy    of    the   Missionary 

Enterprise   .        .        .        i        .160 


THE  THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN 

THIS  theme,  although  not  explicitly 
missionary,  is  one  related  to  all  mis- 
sions that  are  worth  while,  because 
the  very  dynamic  in  them,  even  their  legit- 
imacy, is  all  dependent  on  whether  or  not 
there  be  timeless  and  universal  principles 
underneath  the  missionary  movement. 

The  greatest  war  in  all  history  is  now  on. 
It  is  the  outcome  of  many  decades  of  inter- 
national jealousy.  Nearly  thirty  million 
troops  of  all  nations  are  facing  each  other  on 
battle  fronts.  It  is  accompanied  with  a  ter- 
rorism beyond  all  previous  imagination,  and 
apparently  the  end  is  far  distant.  Incidental 
to  this  war,  missions  have  been  brought  under 
peculiar  strain.  Note  the  situation  in  Ar- 
menia, in  our  European  missions,  and  the 
effect  immediately  or  remotely  upon  all  the 
situations  in  the  eastern  hemisphere.  At 
such  a  time,  when  all  the  civilizations  are 
rocking  as  in   the  throes  of  a  world  earth- 

11 


12  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

quake,  there  is,  therefore,  peculiar  relevancy 
in  the  consideration  of  the  above  theme,  for 
it  is  evident  that  we  must  go  to  the  depths 
in  the  rediscovery  of  our  foundations  if  we 
are  to  find  a  basis  on  which  our  confidence 
in  missionary  enterprises  can  stand. 

That  there  are  things  which  even  accord- 
ing to  the  Scripture  can  be  shaken  is  patent 
to  all ;  such  things  as  are  but  preliminary 
scaJBToldings  to  the  final  building.  For  ex- 
ample, the  whole  Judaistic  system  was  a 
temporary  and  provisional  order  and  or- 
dained so  to  be  from  the  beginning.  The 
Old  Testament  Jewish  ritual,  including  the 
Sabbatical  seasons,  the  sacrifices,  the  periodic 
festivals,  and  all  the  ceremonialism  con- 
nected therewith,  were  by  Christ  transcended 
and  set  aside.  All  civilization,  as  such,  an- 
cient and  modern  in  its  forms  is  ever  chang- 
ing and  successively  vanishing.  Things 
must  be  turned  and  overturned  until  He 
whose  right  it  is  shall  come  to  reign.  Be- 
hind the  present  world  war  has  lain  the 
doctrine  of  Nietsche's  "  superman,"  and  in 
general  a  materialistic  philosophy.  The 
forms  of  international  law  in  wide  areas  have 
been  outlawed  and  set  aside.  Indeed,  all 
human  law,  unless  recognized  as  having  its 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    13 

seat  in  the  bosom  of  God,  must  sooner  or  later 
crumble.  The  whole  present  temporal  order 
must  one  day  cease,  and  the  heavens  them- 
selves be  rolled  together  as  a  scroll.  The 
Scripture  sums  up  all  by  saying  there  will 
be  one  final  shaking  in  which  even  the 
things  which  are  in  the  heavens,  i.  e.,  the 
highest  ranges  of  our  universe  will  be  sub- 
jected to  deeper  tests  than  we  conceive.  Yet 
we  need  not  despair,  because  all  this  is  to 
make  the  more  manifest  certain  ''  things 
which  cannot  be  shaken,"  but  must  perma- 
nently abide. 

Thank  God !  There  is  a  kingdom  with- 
out a  tremor.  It  is  composed  of  the  eternal 
things  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  deeper  than 
all  the  forms  of  the  present  order.  Among 
many  things  that  might  be  named  I  note  a 
few  of  these  elements  which  cannot  be  moved. 

I.  The  first  of  these  is  the  throne  of  God. 
This  is  by  no  means  an  arbitrary  throne  of 
mere  powerful  severity  such  as  many  imag- 
ine. The  Psalmist  said,  "Thy  throne,  O 
God,  is  forever  and  ever.'^  This  throne  is 
what  is  called  in  Hebrews  "  the  throne  of 
Grace."  This  is  the  throne  which  is  ulti- 
mate in  our  universe.  To  this  throne  we  are 
invited  to  "  come  boldly  that  we  may  obtain 


14  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

mercy  and   find  grace  to  help  in  time  of 
need.'' 

I  have  elsewhere  in  a  published  volume,  en- 
titled "  Under  the  Redeeming  iEgis/'  spoken 
of  this  throne  in  the  Scriptural  term  of  '^  the 
rainbow  throne.''  There  are  three  classic 
passages  which  justify  this  title.  The  first 
is  in  Genesis  9  :9-16  ;  the  second  in  Ezekiel 
1  :  27-28  ;  the  third  in  Revelation  4  : 1-3. 
The  first  reference  is  the  appointment  by  God 
of  the  rainbow  thrown  across  the  firmament 
as  the  token  of  a  covenant  that  the  new  race 
from  Noah  on  shall  be  continued  under  a 
redeeming  providential  order — that  summer 
and  winter,  seed  time  and  harvest,  shall  not 
fail.  The  second  reference  is  in  the  vision 
shown  to  Ezekiel  about  to  prophesy  respect- 
ing the  national  sins  of  Israel  which  are  to 
be  visited  with  judgment.  Out  of  these, 
however,  there  will  ultimately  come  the 
glorious  restoration  of  the  chosen  people 
to  their  land  and  the  continuance  of  their 
Davidic  Kingdom  in  some  remarkable  way. 
The  third  reference  in  Revelation  applies  to 
all  apocalyptic  eons  that  stretch  away  into 
the  eternal  future.  All  these  periods  are  to 
be  dominated  by  the  ''throne  with  a  rainbow 
round  about  it."     That  is,  under  a  throne  in 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    15 

which  judgment  is  commingled  with  mercy, 
severity  with  tenderness. 

This  grace  is  often  thought  of  as  a  mere 
synonym  of  love  in  the  sense  of  benevo- 
lence, as  an  easy-going  toleration  of  evil,  but 
grace  embraces  all  the  qualities  inherent  in 
divine  holiness  as  well,  hence  the  throne  of 
grace  is  a  marvellous  unity  as  truly  express- 
ive of  God's  merciful  attitude  towards  hu- 
mankind. 

Now  the  whole  universe  is  grounded  in 
this  throne.  This  universe  is  upheld  and 
held  together  because  that  throne  of  grace  is 
there  and  has  been  from  eternity,  despite  all 
the  episodal  invasion  of  human  transgression. 
All  finite  creation  ;^depends  upon  it.  All 
physical  law  has  its  energy  and  perpetuity 
in  it.  Gravitation,  electrical  energy,  chem- 
ical aflSnity,  and  all  else  in  the  creation 
could  not  exist  apart  from  it.  We  live  in  a 
universe  on  the  whole  friendly  and  gracious. 
In  particular,  all  created  personality  has  its 
root  in  the  God  of  grace  and  the  sovereignty 
of  its  throne.  Man  is  made  in  the  very 
image  of  God  and  though  marred  and  biased 
by  sin,  yet  possesses  elements  of  that  majesty 
seen  even  in  its  ruins.  The  basis  of  all 
realization    of    the    Divine    Fatherhood    is 


16  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

through  submission  to  this  kingship.  The 
realization  of  this  Fatherhood  through  sur- 
render to  legitimate  authority  is  one  of  the 
greatest  surprises  that  ever  comes  to  us. 
President  MuUins  in  his  notable  book,  "  Au- 
thority and  Freedom  in  Religion/'  has  taught 
us  the  beautiful  harmony  there  is  in  this 
paradox.  We  find  our  normal  freedom 
through  complete  submission  to  and  the 
enthronement  of  divine  authority.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  the  moment  of  one's  collapse 
to  self  and  sin,  the  soul  rises  up  and  "  runs 
to  meet  "  and  welcome  the  Divine  Lordship 
and  control  over  the  soul.  Indeed  all  gen- 
uine Christian  experience  has  always  as  its 
antecedent  the  complete  surrender  to  author- 
ity in  God  and  His  glorious  throne.  This 
is  so  in  the  nature  of  things,  because  there  is 
but  one  independent  being  in  this  universe, 
and  all  we  finite  beings  are  necessarily  de- 
pendent and  subject.  The  very  law  of  our 
being  requires  that  God's  authority  shall 
govern  us.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  amidst 
the  very  crash  of  worlds  such  a  tribunal  as 
this  cannot  be  shaken,  for  it  is  ultimate. 

The  present  day  rival  in  thought  to  this 
throne  is  evolution  as  naturalistically  con- 
ceived.    To  the  type  of  evolution  conceived 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    17 

as  a  form  or  method  of  the  divine  operation 
within  large  areas,  yet  with  certain  cre- 
ative interventions,  there  can  be  no  objec- 
tion, but  when  evolution  is  conceived  as  in 
lieu  of  Deity,  or  as  supplanting  the  thought 
of  Deity,  it  is  pure  atheism  or  at  best  pan- 
theism, and  utterly  repugnant  to  the  highest 
reason.  It  is  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  pres- 
ent day  idolatry  in  certain  intellectual  circles. 
If  one  cares  for  up-to-date  discussions  of  the 
absurdity  of  this  conception,  let  him  read 
Professor  La  Conte's  lectures  on  "  Religion 
and  Science,"  any  of  the  later  utterances  of 
the  late  Sir  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  one  of 
the  apostles  of  the  non-materialistic  evolu- 
tion, and  particularly  his  famous  reply  to 
President  Schaefer  of  the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  who  in  his 
opening  address  at  Dundee,  Scotland,  in 
1912,  had  maintained  that  all  life  can  be 
accounted  for  by  chemistry  and  mechanics. 
To  this  address  Wallace  replied  with  spirit, 
and  left  on  record,  at  ninety-one  years  of  age, 
the  most  emphatic  testimony  against  the 
materialistic  origin  of  life.  The  summation 
of  this  famous  answer  is  as  follows  : 

**  I  submit  that,  in  view  of  the  actual  facts  of 
growth    and  organization  as  here  briefly  out- 


18  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

lined,  and  that  living  protoplasm  has  never  been 
chemically  produced,  the  assertion  that  life  is  due 
to  chemical  and  mechanical  processes  alone  is 
quite  unjustified.  Neither  the  probability  of 
such  an  origin,  nor  even  its  possibility,  has  been 
supported  by  anything  which  can  be  termed 
scientific  fact  or  logical  reasoning. '' 

Over  against  all  this,  I  submit  as  belonging 
to  a  kingdom  which  is  without  a  tremor,  is 
the  throne  of  heavenly  grace  as  I  have  de- 
fined it. 

Now  this  throne  of  grace,  or  the  eternal 
spirit  of  which  it  is  the  expression,  is  bent 
on  its  own  self-disclosure  to  the  universe  of 
man,  and  hence  there  arises 

II.  A  second  immovable  element,  namely, 
the  eternal  redemjptive  movement  as  outlined 
in  divine  revelation.  This  redemption  is 
grounded,  or  has  its  start  not  from  the 
simple  historical  event  of  the  fall  of  man 
as  described  in  Genesis,  but  from  the  concep- 
tion of  the  "  Lamb  foreknown  (as  slain)  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world."  The  nature 
of  this  redemption  is  therefore  timeless, 
eternal,  though  it  had  a  concrete  and  visual 
expression  in  the  Lamb  of  Calvary.  Now 
this  redemption  is  more  than  a  mere  recovery 
from  the  sin  of  Adam,  more  than  recovery 
from  freedom's  wreck.     It  involves  the  ulti- 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    19 

mate  new  creation  of  man  in  the  image  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

When  God  said,  *'  Let  us  make  man  in 
our  own  image"  He  had  in  view  not  the 
mere  rudimental  man  of  Eden  that  He  knew 
would  fall  into  sin,  but  the  new  man  in 
Christ  and  as  glorified  with  Him  forever. 
It  was  that  consummate  ideal  which  moved 
God  to  creation  as  a  whole  and  to  every 
feature  embraced  in  it.  This  redemption, 
therefore,  was  no  after-thought,  as  if  God 
having  tried  one  method  of  dealing  with 
man,  which  broke  down,  bethought  Him  of 
another  method  to  meet  the  emergency. 
The  redeeming  work  of  God  in  Christ  was 
no  more  "  emergency  measure  to  meet  the 
surprise  of  a  moral  defection  "  in  the  first 
man,  Adam.  The  purpose  of  redemption 
was  older  than  the  universe.  It  was  the 
ground  purpose  of  the  universe  and  therefore 
God's  forethought  for  mankind.  But  for 
this  forethought,  I  doubt  if  God  ever  would 
have  created  man  at  all,  or  permitted  him  to 
fall  into  sin.  Much  less  would  He  have 
continued  the  race  as  pro-created  from  the 
first  pair.  After  the  sin  of  that  primeval 
pair  in  Eden  the  race  would  have  perished 
right  then  and  there  without  a  posterity  at 


^0  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

all,  but  for  the  antecedent  purpose  to  redeem 
the  race,  which  God  unfolded  to  Eve  in  that 
great  prot-evangel,  '^  thy  seed  shall  bruise 
the  serpent's  head."  The  very  fact,  there- 
fore, that  descendants  have  proceeded  from 
our  mother  Eve,  is  itself  an  assurance  that 
they  have  their  existence  on  the  basis  of  the 
eternal  redeeming  purpose  which  was  later 
more  fully  outlined.  Every  child  born  into 
the  world,  therefore,  is  born  not  only  of  the 
fallen  first  Adam,  but  also  under  the  segis  of 
the  redemptive  system.  Every  child  is  a 
'potentially  redeemed  being,  because  of  this 
antecedent  purpose  and  provision  in  God^s 
grace,  albeit  it  needs  to  be  brought  by  in- 
struction, persuasion,  and  the  Divine  Spirit 
to  accept  for  itself  (by  a  voluntary  action  the 
moment  it  becomes  a  voluntary  being)  that 
provision  of  grace.  In  other  words,  if  I  may 
so  speak,  God  had  "  up  His  sleeve  "  an  ante- 
cedent purpose  prior  to  creation,  to  redeem 
the  world. 

The  fact  is  our  universe  is  redempto- centric. 
It  is  not,  as  the  early  Andover  School  of 
Thought  interpreted  it,  *'  Christo-centric " 
rather  than  "  Theo-centric,"  because  in 
reality  those  terms,  when  understood,  mean 
exactly  the  same  thing.     But  to  say  that  the 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    21 

universe  is  centered  in  a  redemptive  principle 
in  God  is  to  go  to  the  heart  of  things,  for  the 
redemptive  purpose  in  God  logically  antedates 
"the  purpose  to  create.  That  is,  the  ultimate 
expression  of  God  in  this  universe  is  grace  ; 
as  Paul  puts  it,  "  That  in  the  ages  to  come 
he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches  of  his 
grace  in  his  kindness  towards  us  through 
Christ  Jesus."  In  the  Hebrews  we  read, 
"  Of  the  things  which  we  have  spoken,  this 
is  the  sum  " — i.  e.,  '*  We  have  such  an  High 
Priest  who  is  passed  into  the  heavens  .  .  . 
into  the  true  tabernacle  which  the  Lord 
pitched  and  not  man." 

The  expression  of  the  Deity  here  referred 
to  is  one  of  the  several  ''  better  "  and  eternal 
things  with  which  the  author  is  dealing, 
respecting  the  symbolism  of  the  tabernacle. 
Dr.  Denney  of  Glasgow  remarks  with  great 
pertinency  that  the  word  '*  eternal  "  through- 
out this  epistle  has  the  significance  of  finality, 
that  is  of  something  ultimate  in  God's  uni- 
verse. 

We  need  to  sense  afresh  the  significance  of 
that  great  discussion  of  Anselm  in  the 
eleventh  century,  entitled  Cur  Deus  Homo, 
one  of  the  profound  discussions  of  the  ages. 
True,  this  is  not  the  last  word  in  theology 


22  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

respecting  the  Atonement  and  the  Incarna- 
tion. We,  however,  do  well  to  come  back  to 
it  repeatedly,  and  weigh  the  tremendous 
import  of  the  question,  ''  Why  God  was 
manifest  in  the  fiesh."  It  implied  redemp- 
tion— and  this  may  properly  be  considered 
as  God's  ground  purpose,  underlying  Creation 
and  all  that  followed  it.  For  further  dis- 
cussion of  this  subject,  see  my  book  entitled 
*^The  Divine  Reason  of  the  Cross."  The 
ultimate  end  of  all  this  movement  was  the 
self- manifestation  of  God  in  Christ,  and  our 
own  ever-increasing  apprehension  of  that 
manifestation  and  joy  in  it,  and  in  its  trans- 
mission to  others.  Our  race,  therefore,  in- 
volving the  very  cosmic  order — the  heavens 
and  the  earth — is  a  potentially  redeemed 
world,  and  the  movement  towards  its  re- 
alization is  one  of  the  things  that  can  never 
be  shaken,  even  amid  the  crash  of  our 
mundane  order. 

III.  This  redemption  just  referred  to 
issued  in  a  providential  moral  order ^  the  order 
under  which  our  world  and  we  all  as  respon- 
sible creatures  have  our  being.  This  also  is 
among  the  foundational  things  unshakable. 
The  late  Professor  Royce  points  out  in  the 
last  chapter  of  his  "  Spirit  of  Modern  Philos- 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    23 

ophy  "  that  there  is  behind  our  moral  order 
a  Supreme  suffering  Deity;  that  is,  He  suffers 
sympathetically  with  all  the  ills  that  have 
arisen  under  that  order.  No  other  expla- 
nation of  the  problem  of  human  suffering  is 
nearly  so  satisfactory  as  that  which  assumes, 
as  Scripture  also  reveals,  that  this  is  the 
*'  world  of  the  suffering  logos."  If  this  is  so, 
then  the  moral  order  is  grounded  in  redemp- 
tion, and  all  that  we  call  Providence  is  but  a 
corollary  of  redemption. 

Just  prior  to  our  last  Thanksgiving  Day, 
I  with  several  others  was  asked  by  the  editor 
of  the  Sunday  School  Times  of  Philadelphia 
this  question  :  ''  What  one  thing  can  you 
suggest  in  few  words  as  that  for  which  the 
world  may  be  thankful  in  a  war-stricken 
time  like  this  ? "  After  pondering  some 
time,  my  answer  was  as  follows :  '*  We  may 
be  thankful  for  the  moral  providential  order, 
a  system  under  which  the  world  war,  with 
all  its  rack  and  ruin,  has  occurred  ;  for  under 
this  order  there  may  be  occasion  for  grati- 
tude respecting  three  classes  of  events,  how- 
ever distressing  they  are  in  themselves  ;  we 
may  be  thankful  first — for  the  possibility 
that  dying  soldiers  by  the  million  at  the 
battle  front  may,  if  they  will,  while  dying 


24  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

go  straight  into  the  presence  of  their  Re- 
deeming God — so  the  most  distressing  battle 
trench  may  become  but  an  ante-room  to  the 
Heavenly  Glory  for  every  penitent  soldier 
;slain  in  whatever  army.  We  may  be  thank- 
ful, secondly,  that  all  the  afflicted  relatives 
of  the  dying  soldiers,  if  they  will,  may  have 
their  loss  and  bereavement  sanctified  to  their 
moral  well-being  and  to  a  diviner  comfort 
than  they  ever  before  knew.  And  thirdly — 
under  our  moral  order  every  one  of  the  bel- 
ligerent nations  may,  if  in  the  end  it  will 
become  filial  towards  God  and  His  purposes 
in  history,  have  this  awful  cataclysm  of 
calamity  sanctified  to  its  own  national  well- 
being,  so  as  to  assume  a  truer  place  in  history 
than  it  had  previously  occupied."  This  is  a 
matter  of  tremendous  moment  as  respects 
our  thought  of  the  universe  as  a  whole  and 
"  the  moral  uses  of  dark  things."  And  bear 
in  mind  all  this  is  possible  only — under  the 
regime  of  a  potentially  redeemed  world  and 
the  kind  of  a  moral  order  that  has  come  into 
being  under  it.  It  is  therefore  worth  while 
to  live,  under  whatever  possible  circum- 
stances, and  so  we  can  maintain  an  optimistic 
attitude,  and  never  despair — no  matter  what 
occurs. 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    25 

I  here  speak  of  another  mystery  connected 
with  this  subject,  viz.,  the  matter  of  that 
solidarity  of  the  human  race  which  is  a 
phenomenon  of  our  order.  Many  are  wont  to 
complain  that  they  are  placed  in  this  world 
in  an  organic  connection  with  all  other  moral 
beings ;  and  people  inquire,  "  How  can  it  be 
just  in  God  to  create  me  in  such  relations  to 
my  ancestors,  to  my  family  relations  and  to 
society  as  a  whole  that  I  should  suffer  in- 
cidentally for  their  faults  and  wrong-doings? 
Why  should  I  be  born  with  such  a  heredity  ?  " 
It  is  a  tremendous  mystery,  but  there  is 
another  side  to  this  matter,  which  when  prop- 
erly viewed  should  more  than  satisfy  us  re- 
specting all  our  questionings.  This  very 
solidarity  is  also  the  basis  of  all  our  social 
inspirations.  If  my  personal  act  always  stood 
in  complete  isolation  from  all  other  people 
and  interests,  the  power  of  the  self-communi- 
cation of  myself  to  other  souls  near  or  far 
would  also  be  precluded.  But  the  fact  that 
I  am  organically  bound  up  with  every  other 
member  of  the  community,  the  nation  and  the 
world,  furnishes  one  of  the  highest  forms  of 
my  social  joy  and  inspiration.  A  tone,  a 
look  may  last  forever  in  its  power  to  impress 
another — my   moral  decision  may  make  it 


26  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

easier  for  descendants  in  countless  genera- 
tions to  act  the  more  truly  and  freely.  My 
act  may  affect  myriads  in  China  or  India  or 
some  other  distant  part  of  the  earth,  although 
I  may  never  see  them  in  this  world,  and 
although  I  may  not  know  one  word  of  their 
language  and  could  not  speak  to  them  in- 
telligently if  we  met.  Moreover,  my  relation 
to  Jesus  Christ,  the  manifested  Redeemer,  is 
such  that  I  may  have  a  new  heredity  in  Him 
as  the  new  Adam  of  the  human  race ;  and 
this  may,  if  I  avail  myself  of  it,  more  than 
counteract  all  the  damage  I  have  derived 
from  the  first  Adam.  This  universe  there- 
fore on  the  whole  is  a  friendly  universe  in  its 
divine  intention,  potency  and  moral  possibili- 
ties, for  where  sin  has  abounded  in  the  forms 
of  its  infection,  grace  has  ''  abounded  much 
more  exceedingly."  These  **  much  mores," 
as  expressed  in  Paul's  thought  in  the  fifth  of 
Romans  and  its  context,  indicate  something 
which  more  than  counterbalances  all  the 
damage  derived  from  any  solidarity  of  evil. 
Such  is  the  beneficence  of  our  moral  order. 

Stand  with  me  in  a  railway  station  on  an 
electrified  line — read  the  warning  signal, 
**  Danger,  Live  Rail  I  "  That  means  if  you 
step   upon   that   live   rail   or  grasp  it  with 


THI:N'GS  which  cannot  be  shaken    27 

your  hands,  instant  death  will  follow.  There 
is  therefore  enormous  risk  in  that  live  rail 
and  the  electric  current  that  fills  it  with 
deadly  possibilities.  Yet,  were  that  dread 
possibility  wanting,  that  electric  current 
could  never  be  utilized  to  bear  multitudes 
of  people  safely  to  their  destination.  Those 
two  polarities  of  evil  or  good,  of  danger  or 
safety  reside  in  that  current,  and  it  is  our 
personal  attitude  towards  it  that  makes  all 
the  difference  respecting  its  operation.  So  it 
is  in  our  kind  of  world.  As  free  beings,  we 
are  here  for  better  or  worse !  we  are  free 
agents.  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  live  at  all, 
but  it  is  an  all-glorious  thing  to  live  in  right 
relation  to  the  redeemed  possibilities.  Now 
thank  God  !  such  a  moral  order  as  this  cannot 
be  shaken — hence  the  solid  grounds  for  our 
abiding  faith  no  matter  what  comes. 

IV.  Then  out  of  this  kind  of  a  probation 
conditioned  by  the  providential  moral  order 
under  which  we  live  issues  what  we  call 
Christian  experience.  Indeed  the  deepest  ex- 
periences spring  out  of  such  cataclysms  as 
we  naturally  deplore.  The  very  shaking  of 
the  temporal  things,  the  removing  of  the 
provisional  scaffoldings  of  our  life,  but  the 
better  manifest  the  real  spiritual  temple  in 


28  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

its  building.  We  are  prone  to  forget  that 
our  life  is  related  to  two  worlds — and  that 
"  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal," 
while  only  the  "  unseen  things  are  eternal." 
The  problem  of  life  is  to  teach  us  how  to 
live  our  eternal  life  in  the  midst  of  time,  and 
there  is  therefore  a  moral  necessity  in  the 
case  that  we  should  learn  to  surrender  the 
lower  values  for  the  higher.  This  is  the 
deeper  meaning  of  that  whole  realm  of  things 
we  call  the  sacrificial.  Sacrifice  in  the  Chris- 
tian sense  does  not  mean  the  waste  of  life, 
but  that  we  surrender  a  lower  value  for  a 
higher.  There  is  here  a  spiritual  exchange, 
and  it  is  only  through  the  sacrificial  expe- 
riences that  we  reach  the  higher  ranges. 
Tennyson  sings,  ''  We  rise  on  stepping  stones 
of  our  dead  selves  to  higher  things."  All 
this  is  possible  to  what  we  call ''  personality." 
Personality  is  the  one  thing  that  can  change 
endlessly  and  still  preserve  its  identity,  that 
can  die-  to  lower  forms  of  life  and  then  rise 
to  higher  forms. 

Here  we  touch  the  realm  of  the  paradox- 
ical. The  interior  truths  of  Christianity  are 
the  paradoxes,  such  as  abound  in  Christ^s 
teaching.     These  are  to  be  considered  later. 

No  rupture,  therefore,  of  the  natural  con- 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    29 

ditions  under  which  our  life  starts  can  ever 
render  impossible  these  deeper  experiences 
of  the  soul — grounded  in  the  paradoxes, 
which  for  their  very  realization  involve  the 
removing  of  things  which  can  be  shaken, 
because  this  is  an  antecedent  condition  to  the 
realization  and  possession  of  "  the  things 
which  cannot  be  shaken.'^  Our  religion  is 
a  great  deep — it  goes  to  the  foundations  of 
the  universe ;  it  is  built  on  adamant, 
grounded  in  the  Eternal.  It  utterly  tran- 
scends the  natural. 

During  the  year  of  the  great  exposition  in 
Chicago  a  train  near  Battle  Creek,  Michigan, 
became  wrecked,  and  the  coaches  took  fire. 
Pinioned  beneath  the  shattered  and  burning 
timbers  was  a  Christian  woman.  She  at 
first  screamed  hysterically  for  ^'  help,  help  I  " 
She  implored  the  men,  who  were  working 
with  axes  and  crowbars  to  extricate  her, 
to  do  their  utmost  amid  the  approaching 
flames.  This  they  did  until  it  became  evi- 
dent that  they  could  no  longer  stand  before 
the  devouring  fire,  whereupon  this  woman 
released  them  from  further  effort,  exclaim- 
ing :  '*  Now  I  know  that  I  must  die,  I  will 
show  you  how  a  Christian  can  die,"  where- 
upon she  burst  forth  in  a  song  of  praise  to 


30  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

her  God  and  through  the  flames  passed  be- 
yond their  power. 

V.  Finally,  all  this  preceding  provision 
which  we  have  just  considered  in  the  divine 
economy  results  in  a  new  society — a  new 
social  order.  This  has  been  called  by  that 
great  theologian  of  the  fourth  century,  Au- 
gustine, *'  The  City  of  God."  This  classic 
work  of  Augustine's  was  written  to  find  a 
basis  of  comfort  for  the  church  of  that  period 
which  had  become  so  harassed  and  dis- 
tressed through  the  invasion  of  the  Roman 
Empire  by  the  Goths  and  Huns  of  North 
Europe.  This  City  of  God  is  a  society  within 
a  society.  It  is  composed  of  the  regenerate 
sons  of  men  who  have  come  into  the  experi- 
ence of  new  life  in  Christ  Jesus.  This  new 
life  results  in  a  unique  fellowship,  and  soli- 
darity of  spiritual  beings.  It  is  the  church 
invisible,  but  a  society  all  the  more  real  on 
that  account.  It  finds  its  unity  in  the  com- 
mon divine  life  created  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  it  is  mystically  joined  together  by  bonds 
invisible  yet  eternal.  It  is  being  gathered 
out  of  all  the  peoples  of  mankind,  and  it  will 
finally  issue  in  the  new  corporate  life  of  what 
the  Apocalypse  sets  forth  as  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem, a  society  of  wondrous  symmetry  and 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  SHAKEN    31 

glory,  for  which  all  the  imagery  and  glory 
employed  by  St.  John,  the  seer  of  Patmos, 
stands.  The  essential  thing  in  all  this  is 
the  eternal  completeness  of  the  divine  ideal, 
which  involves  more  than  perfected  indi- 
vidualism. It  is  a  new  social  order,  and 
may  be  represented  under  many  idealistic 
forms. 

The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
describes  it  thus  :  *'  But  ye  are  come  unto 
Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living 
God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  in- 
numerable company  of  angels,  to  the  gen- 
eral assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born 
which  are  written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the 
judge  of  all  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect." 

The  essential  point  for  our  comfort  in  all 
this  pictorial  description  is  that,  despite  all 
the  asperities  between  men,  all  the  schisms 
and  conflicts  between  people  and  nations  re- 
sulting often  in  complete  anarchy,  there  is 
here  an  assurance  of  a  perfect  social  order 
incipient  in  the  Church  of  God,  but  ulti- 
mately to  be  actualized  in  the  corporate  life 
of  real  believers.  This,  too,  is  among  the 
things  that  are  unshakable — no  matter  what 
social  and  hostile  concussions  may  arise  in 


32  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

the  present  world  order.  The  very  fact  that 
such  hostilities,  such  strife,  such  enmity, 
such  hate  as  enters  into  present  world  con- 
flict in  Europe  shakes  our  confidence  in  the 
stability  of  so-called  civilization,  affords  a 
background,  however  dark,  over  against 
which  we  may  in  faith  construct  this  bright 
picture  of  more  than  a  millennial  glory. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  the  Apostle  con- 
cludes in  the  context  from  which  our  text 
is  taken  with  the  words,  "  Wherefore  we, 
receiving  a  kingdom  which  cannot  be 
moved,  let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we  may 
serve  God  acceptably  with  reverence  and 
godly  fear/' 


II 

PEOVIDENCE  GEOUNDED  IN  EEDEMPTION 

IN  this  lecture  I  expand  one  point  em- 
braced in  the  preceding  lecture  on  *'  The 
Things  Which  Cannot  Be  Shaken." 

For  basis  I  take  two  Scripture  passages  : 
"  And  Abraham  called  the  name  of  that 
place  Jehovah-jireh  " — *'  the  Lord  will  pro- 
vide," Genesis  22  :  14  ;  and  a  passage  supple- 
mental in  thought  to  this,  found  in  Romans 
8:32:  "He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son, 
but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall 
he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all 
things  ?  "  Abraham  primarily  meant  that 
God  will  provide  the  redeeming  Lamb,  but 
Paul  says  that  the  gift  of  this  Lamb  is  the 
guarantee  of  all  things  that  God's  people  can 
ever  need. 

There  is  nothing  that  so  renders  most  peo- 
ple unhappy  as  the  habit  of  complaint  re- 
specting their  circumstances.  But  we  are  to 
find  the  divine  freedom  in  our  circumstances. 
If  they  can  be  altered  by  any  rational  or  jus- 

33 


34  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

tifiable  act  on  our  own  part,  that  is  well. 
We  must  not  be  fatalists.  But  such  cir- 
cumstances as  are  unalterable  are  certainly 
providential,  at  least  in  their  moral  bear- 
ing. 

But  a  caution  is  to  be  observed  :  The 
Bible  doctrine  of  providence  is  not  that  God 
takes  care  of  those  who  take  perfect  care  of 
themselves.  That  would  be  no  providence 
for  sinful  and  blundering  people  such  as  we 
all  are.  The  everlasting  arms  are  under- 
neath, with  larger  provisions  for  us  despite 
our  blundering.  The  whole  moral  order 
under  which  our  race  exists  in  the  redemp- 
tive economy  is  itself  providential  for  all 
men.  Christian  or  Pagan,  whether  they  know 
it  or  not.  It  is  of  immense  moment  that  all 
should  know  it  and  respond  to  it.  Hence 
Christian  missions.  The  most  experienced 
of  us  Christians  cannot  pass  through  a  trial, 
say  a  funeral,  or  a  crisis  in  business,  without 
the  comforts  of  this  Bible  teaching.  But 
relying  on  God's  love  and  grace,  all  emer- 
gencies and  exigencies  can  be  met,  no  mat- 
ter what,  and  triumphed  over.  So  my 
message  is  to  the  most  discouraged  person 
possible. 

If  we  begin  with  the  Old  Testament,  the 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         35 

very  name  of  Jehovah — not  the  imagined 
Pagan  Yahveh  of  the  destructive  critics — 
implies  the  doctrine  of  providence  before  us. 
This  word  Jehovah  is  the  most  sacred  name 
for  Deity,  the  redeeming  Deity,  known  to 
the  Hebrew  nation,  a  name  which  the  devout 
Hebrew  still  thinks  too  sacred  to  be  spoken. 
Hence  he  substitutes  the  word  Adonai. 
Then  providence  is  a  corollary  of  redemption 
and  grounded  in  it.  Were  there  no  redemp- 
tion, there  could  be  no  providence.  But 
having  given  in  predestined  purpose  the 
chief  thing,  viz.,  the  timeless  lamb  of  God, 
that  carries  with  it  all  the  subordinate  values 
for  us.  That  embraces  every  event  and  cir- 
cumstance in  the  believer's  life,  from  birth  to 
glorification. 

When  Moses  shrank  from  the  commission 
given  him  to  lead  Israel  out  of  Egypt  and  he 
inquired,  "  Who  shall  I  say  hath  sent  me  ?  " 
God  answered,  ''  I  am  that  I  am  "  or  (I  am 
that  which  I  will  be) ;  "  and  this  is  my 
memorial  name  forever,  to  all  generations  '' ; 
that  is,  God  is  the  eternal  self-existent  one 
who  would  more  and  more  reveal  and  unfold 
Himself  to  and  through  His  people,  the 
Gentile  as  well  as  Jew,  and  forevermore. 
Such  was  the  meaning   of  the  very   name 


36  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

of  the  eternal  covenant-keeping  God  of 
grace. 

In  the  Old  Testament  there  are  seven  com- 
pound names  of  Jehovah  that  cover  the 
whole  life  of  the  redeemed  people.  These 
are  Jehovah-jireh  (Genesis  23  :  14),  meaning 
redemption  and  providence,  Jehovah-rapha, 
the  Lord  that  healeth  (Exodus  15 :  26), 
Jehovah-nissi,  the  Lord  our  banner  (Exodus 
17:8-15),  Jehovah-shalom,  the  Lord  our 
peace  (Judges  6  :  24),  Jehovah-raah,  the  Lord 
my  shepherd  (Psalm  23  :  1),  Jehovah-tsid- 
kenu,  the  Lord  our  righteousness  (Jeremiah 
26  : 6),  and  Jehovah-shammah,  the  Lord  is 
present  (Ezekiel  48  :  35) ;  the  last  referring 
to  the  final  city  of  God,  the  New  Jerusalem, 
when  the  great  work  of  redemption  will  be 
complete  and  God's  abiding  presence  shall 
be  our  light  forever.  Now  this  sevenfold 
name,  imbedded  in  the  very  structure  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  its  various  periods  and 
studied  in  the  light  of  their  various  con- 
texts, covers  typically  the  chief  spiritual 
issues  that  can  ever  arise  in  the  life  of  God's 
people.  They  presuppose  a  God  of  love  and 
grace  who  has  forethought  everything  per- 
taining to  their  redeemed  life. 

God  does  not  indeed  ordain  (or  foreordain) 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         37 

an  unpropitious  event,  in  itself  alone  con- 
sidered, perhaps  perpetrated  on  us  with  evil 
intent  as  in  the  scourging  of  Paul  at  Philippi 
or  in  the  tortures  inflicted  on  Judson  at  Ava, 
for  the  sake  of  the  pain,  but  He  does  ordain 
in  His  grace  the  moral  bearings  and  the 
ultimate  **  peaceable  fruits"  intended  for  us 
to  realize  afterwards. 

The  doctrine  of  divine  providence  is  a 
central  thing  in  Christianity.  Christianity 
is  the  only  religion  in  the  world  that  has 
such  a  doctrine,  or  that  can  have.  This  for 
two  reasons  :  first,  because  the  God  of  our 
redemption  is  the  only  kind  of  a  being  com- 
petent to  provide  providence  for  us ;  and, 
secondly,  because  our  possible  harmony  and 
fellowship  with  Him  is  the  only  condition  on 
which  things  on  the  human  side  can  be 
made  "  to  work  together "  for  our  good. 
After  all  that  you  may  seek  in  comparative 
religion — say,  Confucianism,  Mohammedan- 
ism, Brahmanism,  Buddhism  or  Shintoism 
— you  will  find  that  none  of  them  has  any 
teaching  on  the  providence  of  God.  Most  of 
these  religions  are  fatalistic,  or  if  not  that, 
they  are  legalistic,  as  Judaism  was.  But  our 
religion  is  evangelical. 

In   the   New   Testament,  anxiety  on  the 


38  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDCfM 

part  of  a  disciple  is  absolutely  forbidden 
(Matthew  6  :  24-31).  Not  that  we  are  to  be 
careless  and  reckless,  going  as  we  please  with 
our  lives,  and  thus  presuming  on  God's 
mercy.  In  the  eighth  of  Romans  we  are 
assured  that  "  All  things  " — not  all  things 
excejpt  some  particular  circumstances  that  try 
me — '*  work  together  for  good/'  how  we  do 
not  know,  "  to  them  that  love  God,"  i.  e.,  to 
those  whose  attitude  is  filial  towards  God's 
manner  of  dealing  with  them. 

God  has  a  plan  for  every  life,  as  Bushnell 
has  brought  out  in  his  great  sermon  based 
on  God's  word  to  Cyrus :  "  I  girded  thee, 
though  thou  hast  not  known  me."  But  the 
pathos  and  tragedy  is  that  many  people  do 
not  find  even  the  hint  of  such  a  plan  for 
them.  This  plan  we  never  see  complete  in 
advance,  but  if  we  live  the  life  of  faith,  then 
we  shall  see  it  progressively,  step  by  step  as 
we  move  on. 

Remember  how  Paul  said :  "  I  have 
learned  " — he  had  been  initiated — "  in  what- 
soever state  I  am  therein  to  be  content." 
That  was  from  the  man  who  had  been  in 
Roman  prisons,  who  had  been  flogged  until 
his  back  ran  down  with  gore,  and  yet  who 
**  sang  songs  in  the  night,"  until  the  earth- 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         39 

quake  wrecked  the  prison,  and  the  jailer 
smitten  with  fear  and  conviction  came  crying 
out,  ''  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  You, 
no  less  than  Paul,  need  not  lie  awake  nights 
worrying  to  think  what  is  to  become  of  you 
to-morrow.  Just  lie  down  in  serenity  and 
relax  in  your  heavenly  Father's  arms,  re- 
membering that  the  forces  of  to-morrow  will 
be  marshalling  themselves  to  become  agents 
and  ministers  to  your  need  when  the  morrow 
comes.  "  The  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth,  .  .  .  waiting  for  (or  waiting 
on)  the  redemption  "  (Romans  8  :  22).  "  The 
whole  creation  !  "  even  Jupiter  and  Neptune, 
Mars  and  Venus,  and  the  myriad  suns  in  their 
courses,  all  ministering  to  God's  purpose 
in  you.  Why  then  fret  and  chafe  because 
you  cannot  see  beyond  the  present  moment  ? 
God  is  Jehovah-jireh.  He  foresees,  fore- 
cares,  and  foreprovides.  Many  people  have 
asked  me  why  I  put  that  old  Chester  motto 
across  the  gable  of  my  house  at  Northfield. 
''  God's  providence  is  mine  inheritance." 
Because  it  is  the  story  of  the  deepest  crux 
and  crisis  of  my  individual  life.  When  I 
was  broken  down  and  in  despair,  a  nervous 
wreck,  purposing  to  abandon  the  ministry 
forever,  logically   involving   giving  up  the 


40  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Bible  and  God  and  all  things  connected  with 
them,  trusting  in  second  causes,  imagining 
that  any  cause  in  His  material  universe  is  as 
deep  as  God  Himself:  it  was  then  I  collapsed 
before  God  with  a  broken  heart  and  felt  as 
if  the  crust  of  the  earth  just  opened  and  let 
me  through  and  I  went  down  and  down 
until  I  struck  the  center.  And  what  did  I 
find  there?  Hell?  Far  from  that.  I  fell, 
to  my  surprise,  full  into  the  arms  of  my 
heavenly  Father,  and  I  discovered  that  His 
love  is  infinitely  better  and  deeper  for  me 
than  mine  for  Him.  By  that  breakdown  in 
health  He  was  simply  shutting  me  up  to  a 
different  life.  I  would  have  ruined  my 
ministry  but  for  that  breakdown  and  you 
may,  my  brother,  with  all  your  promise,  if 
you  do  not  have  some  similar  crisis  to  rees- 
tablish your  trust  in  God.  I  pity  the  man 
who  has  not  had  some  time  a  thorn  in  the 
flesh.  It  is  through  those  infirmities  and 
so-called  misfortunes  that  we  chiefly  learn 
the  deep  things  of  God. 

One  would  not  ask  a  flippant  person 
about  his  belief  in  the  divine  providence. 
When  we  want  to  ask  that  question,  we  go 
to  some  bedridden  person,  to  some  one  with 
^n  incurable  disease, — we  go  to  such  to  see 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         41 

their  faces  shine  and  hear  their  song.  In  my 
pastorate  in  Indianapolis  many  years  ago  I 
called  one  day  on  a  young  girl  of  seventeen, 
who  was  a  paralytic.  I  was  advised  to  go 
there  for  my  own  edification.  I  found  that 
girl  with  an  open  Bible  on  her  lap.  She 
was  unable  to  turn  in  bed  or  feed  herself  or 
even  turn  the  leaves  of  her  Bible,  but  her 
heart  was  peaceful  and  her  face  happy.  She 
so  impressed  me  that  I  had  her  brought  one 
night  in  a  wheel  chair  more  than  a  mile  to 
my  prayer-meeting,  that  my  people  might 
hear  her  testimony  and  look  upon  the  halo 
on  her  face. 

To  revert  to  Paul.  You  have  often  ob- 
served his  use  of  the  word  ''  boast"  or 
*' glory."  If  you  ministers  who  have  a  good 
Englishman's  Greek  concordance  will  look 
up  the  Greek  behind  that  word  you  will 
find  it  to  be  naoxdoixai.  This  word  occurs 
fifty-six  times  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
fifty-three  times  it  is  Paul  who  uses  the  word. 
In  Romans  we  hear  him  say  we  "  glory  (or 
exult)  in  tribulation  also  "  ;  that  is,  Paul  who 
was  ''  in  stripes  above  measure,  in  prisons 
more  frequent,  in  deaths  oft,"  who  "  five 
times  received  forty  stripes  save  one,"  who 
was    "  thrice    beaten   with    rods,   once   was 


42  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

stoned,  thrice  suffered  shipwreck/'  was  a 
*'  night  and  a  day  in  the  deep/'  was  ''  in 
perils  manifold/'  etc.,  still  was  the  most 
triumphant  of  all  the  apostles.  He  says  : 
^'  If  I  must  needs  glory  " — that  is,  to  vindi- 
cate the  grace  of  Christ  in  me — "  I  will 
glory  of  the  things  which  concern  my  infir- 
mities." In  other  words,  Paul  had  settled 
in  his  heart  that  God's  plan  for  him  was  the 
very  best  thing  possible  and  so,  when  in  the 
Roman  jail,  he  characterized  himself  not  as 
a  prisoner  of  Roman  law,  not  of  Jewish 
bigotry,  but  of  Jesus  Christ,  **  a  prisoner  of 
hope."  He  looked  clean  through  prison  bars 
and  even  over  the  headman's  block  with  his 
exultant  eye  on  the  crown.  In  Ephesians 
he  speaks  of  himself  as  "  an  embassador  in 
bonds,"  but  he  uses  the  verb  rather  than  the 
noun,  and  so  virtually  says  :  *'  I  am  conduct- 
ing an  embassy,"  albeit  in  chains,  "  heading 
the  greatest  legation  the  world  ever  knew." 
Although  bound  to  a  soldier  in  the  Roman 
prsetorium,  his  radiance  was  manifest  even 
to  all  his  guards.  He  was  during  that  im- 
prisonment, paradoxical  as  it  seems,  the  freest 
man  in  imperial  Rome.  This  was  Paul's 
habitual  attitude  and  be  it  remembered  not 
because    he   was    on   occasions  an  inspired 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         43 

writer,  but  as  a  typical  believer  with  real 
faith  in  God's  providence.  It  is  the  proper 
attitude  for  us  all. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  although  it  com- 
monly is,  that  the  alternative  denial  or 
negation  of  this  Bible  doctrine  of  providence 
is  cold,  icy  fatalism — something  worse  even 
than  chance.  For  example,  some  religious 
teachers  have  a  habit  of  saying  of  an  un- 
toward event  like  the  death  of  a  child  from 
diphtheria :  "  God  had  nothing  to  do  with  that. 
It  is  the  working  of  mere  natural  law ;  cause 
and  effect,  bad  sanitation  and  the  like." 
Law  is  there,  but  that  is  not  the  whole  case, 
and  I  challenge  any  minister  of  religion  to 
console  the  afflicted  on  the  ground  that  God 
has  abdicated  to  "law  and  company.'^  Those 
who  thus  speak  seem  oblivious  of  the  fact 
that  by  excluding  God  from  any  relation  to 
such  an  afflictive  event,  they  do  not  get  rid 
of  the  real  difficulty  :  they  simply  relegate 
all  to  fatality ;  and  fatality  is  impotent  to 
procure  one  solitary  benefit  from  affliction  to 
the  subject  thereof.  Fatalism  has  no  place 
for  the  personal  and  paradoxical,  of  which 
the  personal  God  is  master,  and  with  which 
Christian  experience,  especially  of  the  afflicted, 
is  filled.     There  is  no  basis  whatever  for  real 


44:  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

consolation  in  the  mere  outworking  of 
fatality.  But  if  I  stand  by  a  poor  mother 
bending  in  grief  over  the  casket  of  her  dead 
child,  no  matter  what  laws  were  violated  in 
her  affliction,  I  can  say  to  her  :  "  Despite  all 
that  has  occurred,  no  matter  who  blundered, 
and  whatever  laws  were  violated,  God,  the 
all  loving  personality  of  this  universe  in 
whose  will  alone  every  so-called  law  has  its 
coherence,  yet  sustains  such  a  relation  to 
your  poor  broken  heart  as  to  relate  the  moral 
bearing  of  this  event  to  your  present  comfort 
and  eternal  welfare.  Therefore,  in  the  last 
analysis  you  are  not  victimized,  as  you 
would  be  if  fate  only  ruled."  We  may  not 
see  how  God  can  thus  relate  Himself  to  mis- 
fortune and  turn  the  tables  on  it,  but  through 
our  confidence  in  the  supreme  Authority  of 
this  universe,  as  personal,  as  one  who  is  able 
to  use  the  fixities  of  nature  and  law  so  as  to 
bring  out  of  them  some  new  combination 
which  no  law  of  itself  could  ever  effect ;  we 
should  thus  have  a  source  of  consolation,  no 
matter  what  the  form  of  the  affliction. 

Even  a  human  personality,  like  an  aviator 
or  a  submarine  commander  or  any  inventor, 
can  transcend  laws,  with  no  violence  done  to 
anything ;    and    cannot    the   maker   of  all 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         45 

things  do  as  much  ?  On  such  grounds  as 
these  the  doctrine  of  divine  providence  finds 
an  unassailable  basis  in  our  universe  for  the 
subjects  of  redemption. 

During  my  pastorate  in  St.  Paul  some  years 
ago  this  incident  occurred.  One  day  three 
cable  cars  coupled  together,  in  coming  down 
a  long  inclined  railway  from  St.  Anthony 
Hill  to  Third  Street  where  the  line  takes  a 
sharp  curve,  the  cable  which  controlled  the 
cars  broke.  The  result  was  that  the  three 
cars  as  they  reached  the  curve  at  the  base  of 
the  hill  overturned  and  were  badly  broken 
up.  Many  passengers  were  injured  and  two 
or  three  were  killed,  among  them  a  well- 
known  citizen  who  resided  on  St.  Anthony 
Hill.  The  death  was,  of  course,  a  great 
shock  to  his  widow,  who,  after  the  mutilated 
body  had  been  brought  home,  as  she  sat  in 
her  chamber  began  to  reflect  upon  her  sor- 
row and  she  thus  soliloquized':  "  Now  I  can 
nevermore  go  down  to  the  spot  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill  where  this  tragedy  occurred  be- 
cause it  would  be  a  chamber  of  horrors  to 
me,"  which  she  feared  would  haunt  her 
memory  forever  afterwards.  But  as  she  thus 
reasoned  some  one  seemed  to  say  to  her, 
"  But  you  could  go  if  I  were  to  go  with  you." 


46  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

The  impression  was  so  strong  she  answered, 
''  Why,  certainly  I  could  ;  "  and  suiting  the 
action  to  the  word,  she  put  on  her  wraps 
and  walked  directly  down  to  the  spot.  Our 
mistake  often  is  in  not  facing  our  trials,  and 
we  vainly  try  to  run  away  from  them.  As 
this  brave  woman  reached  the  spot  where 
her  husband  had  met  his  death,  instead  of 
finding  a  place  of  horror  the  Lord  of  glory 
disclosed  Himself  to  her  as  she  had  never 
seen  Him  before  and  she  walked  back  up 
that  long  hill  to  her  home  as  if  borne  by 
angel's  wings.  She  thus  caught  a  vision 
that  never  left  her.  When  I  called  upon 
her  two  or  three  years  succeeding  the  event, 
she  met  me  at  the  door  and  the  radiance  of 
her  face  and  the  cheer  in  her  heart  told  me 
that  this  was  not  a  passing  illusion,  but  that 
for  her  "  The  shadow  of  death  (had  been) 
turned  into  the  morning.'^ 

Years  ago  a  dear  friend  of  mine  and  one 
of  the  district  secretaries  of  our  missionary 
society,  Dr.  W.  S.  McKenzie,  lay  dying  of  a 
dreadful  internal  cancer.  Towards  the  end 
of  his  malady  he  became  an  intense  suflPerer, 
yet  he  used  to  lie  on  his  back  holding  a  pad 
before  him,  and  would  write  notes  to  the 
clerks  in  our  office  whom  he  tenderly  re- 


GROUNDED  IN  REDEMPTION         47 

membered.  He  wrote  this  to  one  of  them  : 
**  Should  you  ever  be  tempted  as  a  Christian 
to  be  afraid  of  death  I  beg  you  to  dismiss  it. 
There  is  one  who  for  us  has  tasted  death  in 
its  bitter  reality,  and  its  very  substance. 
Since  then  we,  His  followers,  have  to  meet 
only  the  shadow  of  that  reality ;  and  a 
shadow  never  hurt  any  one."  Calling  on 
him  one  day  and  finding  him  very  serene  I 
inquired  :  "  Do  those  dreadful  tortures  which 
you  endured  at  the  beginning  of  your  dis- 
ease still  continue  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  replied, 
"  they  are  worse  than  ever.  A  lady  called 
here  the  other  day  and  hearing  no  complaint 
from  me,  she  remarked  to  my  wife  as  she 
left  the  house,  '  How  fortunate  that  your 
husband  is  a  Scotchman,  for  nothing  but  a 
Scotchman's  grit  could  endure  so  bravely 
what  he  does.' "  This  being  told  to  Mc- 
Kenzie,  he  replied,  ''  All  the  *  grit '  in  Scot- 
land couldn't  endure  what  I  suffer  every 
hour  of  the  day  and  night.  It  is  only  pure 
grace  that  can  hold  up  a  man  in  my  case." 
And  then  he  added,  *'  Mabie,  I  seem  to  be 
sitting  away  up  here  above  the  clouds  on  a 
mountain  range  where  all  is  peaceful,  and 
looking  across  the  deep  dark  valley  far  be- 
low I  see  another  sunlit  ridge  opposite  me, 


48  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

often  like  the  forecourts  of  glory.  Down 
there  in  the  valley  where  the  clouds  are 
rolling,  the  lightnings  flash  and  thunders 
peal :  there's  my  disease.  I  look  down  upon 
it  and  say  with  every  pang  that  comes,  *  Go 
on,  do  your  worst,  every  pang  but  brings  me 
nearer  to  those  sunlit  heights  beyond.  I 
shall  soon  be  there.'  "  That  this  doctrine  of 
providence  is  most  deeply  believed  by  the 
greatest  sufferers  among  the  saints  proves 
its  truth.  Men  and  women  are  all  about 
us  in  this  world  wdiose  hearts  have  been 
broken.  They  have  been  disciplined  and 
chastened  through  awful  trials  that  they 
cannot  understand.  But  they  would  not 
exchange  the  spiritual  value  they  have  de- 
rived from  these  for  all  the  world  besides. 
Here  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter, 
as  one  has  said  :  "  Human  strength  alone  is 
as  insufficient  to  support  the  weight  of  a 
feather  as  of  a  mountain,  but  with  that 
strength  which  is  ever  granted  to  the  filial 
hearted,  the  mountain  will  not  be  more  op- 
pressive than  the  feather." 


Ill 


THE  SCHOOL  OP  CHEIST  AKD  OTHEE 
SCHOOLS 

IT  is  characteristic  of  the  schools  of  the 
world,  generally  speaking,  that  they  are 
schools  of  opinion.  They  are  the  ex- 
pression of  human  intellect  chiefly.  They 
often  presuppose  historic  debates.  They  are 
a  product  of  mentality  and  generally  as 
opposed  to  other  forms  of  mentality.  Such 
a  school  is  that  of  Confucius,  in  China,  of 
Laotse  also.  Such  is  the  school  of  Hindu 
Brahmanism,  and  of  Mohammedanism. 
True,  Buddhism,  as  wrought  out  by  Prince 
Siddartha,  or  Gautama,  introduced  a  more 
serious  note  than  his  Brahman  precursors 
used,  i.  e.,  the  moral  note,  the  note  of  personal 
renunciation  for  the  good  of  others,  and  even 
of  mercy  to  animals.  Nevertheless,  even 
this  system  of  thought,  together  with  all  the 
others  above  named,  was  primarily  a  phi- 
losophy, rather  than  a  religion  in  its  true 
sense.  Buddhism,  the  best  of  all  these  sys- 
tems, gathered  in  the  half-truth  of  self-re- 

49 


60  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

nunciation,  even  of  life  itself,  but  it  had  no 
sufficient  goal.  While  it  taught  that  man 
must  in  some  deep  sense  lose  himself,  it  did 
not  teach  how  this  same  man  was  to  find 
himself  in  a  diviner  self,  that  is,  as  Chris- 
tianity puts  it,  in  the  Christ  of  God.  It 
taught  death  to  self,  but  it  stopped  short  of 
the  resurrection-life  in  Christ  Jesus,  which 
is  the  goal  of  all  true  and  proper  self-re- 
nunciation. *' We  die  to  live,"  we  "sink  to 
rise,"  or  as  Tenn3^son  sings,  "  We  rise  on 
stepping  stones  of  our  dead  selves  to  higher 
things."  In  other  words,  all  the  so-called 
ethnic  religions  are,  as  Harnack  has  said,  not 
religions  at  all ;  they  are  mere  philosophic 
cults  and  relatively  to  Christianity  they  are 
superficial.  They  miss  the  deep  realities 
embraced  in  the  Christian  paradoxes. 

The  truth  is,  as  expressions  of  a  single 
aspect  of  the  human  soul,  as  products  of  the 
intellect,  they  are  necessarily  partial  and 
inadequate.  A  true  religion  must  relate 
itself  to  and  draw  upon  the  reverent  and 
obedient  moral  attitude  and  action  of  the 
entire  soul  of  man.  This  soul  is  a  composite 
product,  made  up  of  intellect,  feeling,  con- 
science, imagination  and  will.  As  such  it 
came  whole  from  the  Creator's  hand,  made 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  51 

in  His  image  and  reflecting  entire  personal 
being.  For  purposes  of  religion,  therefore, 
the  entire  soul  must  be  brought  into  relations 
with  its  entire  God.  Indeed  God  cannot 
reveal  or  authenticate  Himself  to  the  frag- 
ment of  a  human  being  ;  and  mere  intellect 
is  a  fragment,  however  sublime  a  portion  of 
personality  it  is.  A  thoughtful  friend  of 
mine  is  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  *'The 
paradox  is  a  necessary  characteristic  of  a 
divine  revelation  of  God  to  man.''  This  is 
so  because  a  paradox  is  a  truth  which, 
apparently  self-contradictory  to  intellect,  is 
seen  to  be  true  and  simple  when  tested  by 
life,  that  is,  by  the  combined  action  of  the 
whole  soul  of  man.  In  divine  revelation  the 
whole  Deity  goes  out  to  man,  and  it  requires 
the  whole  man  in  order  to  be  in  reciprocal 
relation  to  the  God  who  reveals. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  will  readily  be 
seen  why  it  is  that  all  mere  intellectualism 
always  does,  and  always  must,  result  in 
agnosticism.  Those  forms  of  religion,  there- 
fore, which  are  products  merely  or  chiefly  of 
mentality,  are  shallow  and  inadequate  re- 
ligions, no  matter  how  many  millions  have 
been  brought  under  their  swa}^  It  is  on  this 
account  also  that  the  historic  religious  cults, 


^^  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

as  such,  present  impediments  in  the  way  of 
Christianity,  the  one  final  religion,  far  more 
difficult  to  overcome  than  those  presented  by 
pure  Fetishism,  or  Animism.  Thus  far  in 
the  history  of  modern  missions  the  great 
bulk  of  converts  that  have  been  won  from 
paganism  have  come  from  the  Animistic 
or  spirit-worshipping  people,  rather  than  from 
those  cults  which  represent  inadequately  or 
falsely  reasoned  systems  of  thought.  Mere 
thought  does  not  reach  to  God,  does  not 
reach  reality.  This  is  abundantly  illustrated 
even  in  Christendom.  The  highly  intellec- 
tual sceptics  are  the  most  difficult  to  reach, 
because  they  have  drilled  themselves  to 
detach  their  intellectual  processes  from 
other  and  deeper  activities  possible  to  their 
personality.  It  was  this,  we  think,  that 
Christ  had  in  view  when  He  said,  "  All 
that  ever  came  before  me  are  thieves  and 
robbers."  That  is  to  say,  those  philosophic 
religious  teachers  who  have  not  properly 
reckoned  with  their  own  moral  and  volitional 
powers  have  in  so  far  despoiled  themselves 
and  their  disciples  of  those  fundamental  ex- 
ercises "  without  which  no  man  can  see  the 
Lord.'' 
At    this    point   we  see   the   fundamental 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  63 

diversity  of  the  two  philosophies  emphasized 
in  the  Bible.  The  first  is  the  Satanic  type. 
It  approached  the  primeval  man  with  the 
suggestion,  ''  Listen  to  my  enticements,"  **for 
in  the  day  that  ye  shall  eat  ye  shall  be  as 
Gods,  knowing y  Ah  I  but  that  was  only 
half  the  truth,  which  often  turns  out  to  be  a 
whole  lie.  True,  the  eyes  of  the  fallen  were 
opened,  but  to  know  only  their  shame  and 
fall.  They  fell  short  in  the  fatal  act  of  that 
insight  which  is  deeper  than  mental  knowl- 
edge which  they  might  have  had  had  they 
remained  true. 

The  second  philosophy  is  that  represented 
by  Christ  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  *'  Be  ye — be  ye  therefore  per- 
fect, or  complete — even  as  your  Father  in 
heaven  is  perfect ;  exercise  all  the  godlike 
qualities  that  belong  to  your  complete  person 
and  ye  shall  attain  something  unspeakably 
greater  than  mere  knowledge :  namely,  holy, 
godlike  being." 

Now  despite  all  the  wonderful  attainments 
that  have  been  reached  through  the  centuries, 
the  temptation  of  the  worldly  ambitious  is  to 
fall  into  the  snare,  in  the  realm  of  education, 
of  what  I  have  called  the  world,  or  Satanic 
philosophy.    It  is  always  enticing  and  clever, 


54  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

often  serpentine.  On  this  pattern  many 
forms  of  university  life  are  built,  which 
narrow  their  horizon  to  the  merely  intel- 
lectual, and  forget  or  ignore  the  deeper  factors 
of  human  well-being  that  need  to  be  regarded 
and  trained.  The  great  continental  univer- 
sities of  Europe  are  generally  on  this  pattern  ; 
the  imperial  universities  of  Germany,  France, 
Russia  or  the  Scandinavian  countries  and,  to  a 
large  extent,  ancient  universities  in  Britain, 
like  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  where  the  religious 
factors  have  been  overlooked  or  subordinated 
to  the  proud  and  intellectual,  are  on  this 
pattern.  And  I  regret  to  say,  universities  in 
the  new  world,  as  they  become  rich  and  self- 
sufficient,  tend  in  the  same  direction.  So  sure 
as  they  aim  to  become  supremely  intellectual, 
they  become,  however  highly  equipped  with 
endowments  and  apparatus,  but  mills  of 
opinion  ;  they  are  prepared  to  grind  any  form 
of  intellectual  grist  that  may  be  brought  to 
them.  They  select  professors  of  the  keenest 
and  cleverest  powers  representing  every  shade 
of  opinion.  The  question  of  truth  as  such  is 
always  in  danger  of  being  overlooked  or 
ignored.  Of  course  it  is  not  necessarily  so, 
but  the  temptation  is  great  to  the  worldly 
mind   thus   to   conceive   a   university.      Of 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  55 

course  the  realms  and  departments  of  legiti- 
mate investigation  are  manifold  ;  a  real  uni- 
versity must  embrace  within  its  sphere  as 
many  departments  of  human  life  and  action 
as  possible,  such  as  the  arts  and  literature, 
law,  science,  medicine,  surgery,  engineering, 
economics,  journalism,  statecraft,  theology, 
etc.,  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  The  term 
"  university  "  is  a  large  word,  and  it  must  be 
comprehensive,  catholic,  ecumenical,  world- 
wide and  heaven-high  in  its  aims  and 
inquiries.  But  when  I  have  said  "  heaven- 
high,"  I  have  in  one  word  suggested  the 
point  at  which  some  of  the  most  ambitious 
universities  in  the  world  in  the  main  fail. 
They  have  not  from  the  start  kept  in  view 
that  their  supreme  function  is  not  to  attain  to 
mere  opinion  in  any  realm,  even  theological, 
for  its  own  sake,  but  all  is  to  be  for  God's 
sake,  for  heaven's  sake,  for  the  sake  of  the 
whole  round  of  personal  interests  of  the 
human  family,  and  for  those  timeless  and 
eternal  values  which  give  to  truth  its  mean- 
ingo  A  true  university  must  be  organized 
in  the  interest  of  truth — truth  per  se.  And 
truth,  as  such,  can  never  be  reached  in  its 
highest  form  in  any  realm,  apart  from  an 
act  of  will,  a  moral  and  personal  and  entire 


56  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

committal  of  both  teacher  and  pupil  to  the 
God  of  truth  who  presides  over  a  kingdom 
of  truth. 

The  questionable  university  which  I  have 
in  mind  is  the  institution  that  is  not  respon- 
sible to  any  proper  authority.  It  is  lawless, 
self-centered,  idolatrous,  responsible  it  may  be 
to  the  Kaiser,  or  the  state,  and  so  sinks  out 
of  sight  its  moral  distinctions  when  a  racial 
or  national  issue  arises,  and  war  comes  on  ; 
responsible  it  may  be  to  the  King,  to  Parlia- 
ment, or  other  human  standards  not  neces- 
sarily moral  or  spiritual.  It  is  this  type  of 
school  which  I  have  called  a  "  school  of 
opinion,"  which  rarely  gets  beyond  the  habit 
of  debate  or  dispute,  and  lives  in  the  realm 
of  theory  and  abstraction.  Such  a  school 
rarely  works  out  in  the  formation  of  that 
kind  of  character,  that  type  of  personality, 
of  which  the  world  stands  in  dire  need. 

Over  against  the  type  of  schools  I  have 
been  describing  stands  the  school  of  Christ. 
This  school  stands  in  no  antagonism  to  any 
legitimate  features  of  the  schools  previously 
considered.  It  would  gather  in  all  the  re- 
sults of  true  and  sincere  intellectual  inquiry. 
It  aims  at  supplementary,  or  perhaps  I 
would    better    say    complementary,    values' 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  67 

which  other  schools  are  tempted  to  ignore. 
It  may  act  with  the  largest  equipment  or 
with  the  smallest  according  to  circum- 
stances. It  is  in  no  necessary  conflict  with 
those  necessary  but  fragmentary  conceptions 
of  education  that  have  prevailed  in  the 
ambitious  secular  universities.  But  its 
realm  is  larger,  profounder,  and  absolutely 
comprehensive,  if  true  to  its  mission.  The 
school  of  Christ  deals  with  the  ultimates  of 
life  and  being.  It  has  for  its  legitimate 
pupil  the  entire  soul  and  personality  of 
man.  But  it  has  features  that  are  entirely 
distinctive;  and  these  I  now  proceed  to 
point  out. 

First  of  all,  Christ  Himself  laid  the  foun- 
dation stone  in  the  declaration  made 
concerning  Himself  when  He  said,  "  I  am 
the  truth  "  as  well  as  '*  the  way  "  and  "  the 
life,"  that  is.  He  personally  embodied  or 
incarnated  every  ideal  that  belonged  to 
training  and  life  discipline  in  His  own 
being.  He  did  not  merely  hold  the  truth  as 
a  system  of  opinion.  He  certainly  never 
patronized  the  truth,  but  He  Himself  was 
held  and  commanded  at  every  point  by  the 
truth.  He  was  truth's  real  child  and 
product.     And    this    assertion    that    Christ 


68  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

was  the  truth  was  not  a  mere  statement  of 
fact  to  be  kept  isolated  in  Himself.  He 
intended  that  each  disciple  in  His  school 
should  in  his  finite  measure  himself  also 
progressively  embody  the  truth :  and  to  do 
this  required  the  habitual,  voluntary  and 
moral  action  of  the  whole  being  of  the 
disciple.  He  was  expected  therefore  not  to 
attempt  that  impossible  feat  of  holding  his 
thought  in  one  closed  compartment  of  his 
being  and  his  morality  in  another  compart- 
ment. The  pupil  of  Christ  is  never  to 
forget  that  he  is  psychologically  and  morally 
a  unitary  being.  Hence  it  is  also  that  a 
man  cannot  hold  his  religion  in  one  com- 
partment of  himself  and  his  business  or 
politics  in  another.  They  are  necessarily 
intermingled  and  organically  one.  What  a 
man  is  in  business  or  in  politics  that  he  is 
in  religion  and  vice  versa,  or  the  man  de- 
ceives himself.  None  of  the  Dr.  Jekyll  or 
Mr.  Hyde  duplicity  can  be  tolerated  in  the 
school  of  Christ  although  some  would  seem 
to  think  so.  Hence,  the  general  weakening 
in  our  current  formalized  Christianity.  It 
is  said  that  once  when  one  of  the  court 
preachers  of  France,  perhaps  Bourdaloue, 
was  discoursing  in  the  presence  of  royalty 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  59 

on  these  tendencies  of  human  nature  to  two- 
sidedness,  the  King  burst  out,  "  Ah,  sire, 
there  are  indeed  two  men  within  us,"  where- 
upon the  preacher  retorted,  ''  Even  so,  your 
majesty  ;  but  one  of  them  must  perish." 

Perhaps  the  central  passage  on  this  whole 
subject  is  in  that  found  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Matthew.  Christ  had  been  up- 
braiding the  doomed  cities  of  Bethsaida  and 
Capernaum  because  of  their  intolerable  un- 
belief. They  had  witnessed  some  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Master's  works  :  they  had  had 
lesson  upon  lesson  respecting  His  gospel : 
they  had  received  sufficient  light,  intellec- 
tually speaking,  to  have  set  all  western  Asia 
in  a  blaze  of  glory,  but  because  of  their 
wicked  hearts  of  unbelief  they  had  spurned  it 
all,  even  trampled  it  beneath  their  feet  as 
swine  would  the  costliest  pearls.  Hence,  the 
legitimate  pronouncement  of  their  doom 
upon  them  by  Christ,  "Thou  Capernaum, 
thou  Bethsaida,  that  hast  been  exalted  to 
heaven"  (in  point  of  privilege)  "  shall  be  cast 
down  to  hell." 

Then  turning  from  this  fearful  denun- 
ciation for  this  abuse  of  light,  Christ  burst 
forth  in  this  address  to  His  heavenly  Father, 
"  I  thank  thee,  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and 


60  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

earth,  because  thou  hast  hid  these  things 
from  the  wise  and  prudent — the  merely 
speculative  minds — and  hast  revealed  them 
unto  babes ;  that  is,  to  minds  ingenuous  and 
simple  enough  to  act  with  their  whole 
natures  towards  the  truth."  And  then  He 
adds,  "  All  things  have  been  delivered 
unto  me  of  my  Father :  and  no  man 
knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father ;  neither 
knoweth  any  man  the  Father  save  the  Son 
and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal 
him."  A  question  respecting  knowledge^  in 
the  deepest  sense  of  the  word,  is  here  in- 
volved. Christ  is  here  talking  about  the 
deliverance  into  His  hands  of  the  moral 
secrets  of  the  universe,  which  secrets  also 
underlie  all  forms  of  legitimate  authority 
and  power.  The  knowledge  of  the  Father 
therefore  on  His  own  part  is  something  far 
deeper  than  intellectual  cognition  ;  and  so 
also  no  man  can  really  know  God  as  the 
Father  save  one  who  is  in  the  spirit  of  loyal 
subjection  to  Him  as  the  Son  always  was, 
and  as  He  longs  to  have  all  His  disciples  to 
be.  Accordingly,  at  the  end  of  this  dis- 
course all  are  thus  invoked  :  "  Take  my  yoke 
upon  you  and  learn  of  (or  from)  me,  that  is, 
from    my  method    of  learning;    through    a 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  61 

humble  submission  of  my  will  to  God's  as 
the  patient  ox  submits  to  the  yoke."  And 
to  all  such  the  promise  is  certain  of  fulfill- 
ment :  "  Ye  shall  find  rest  to  your  souls/' 
And  so  the  yoke  which  was  feared  as  irk- 
some becomes  easy  and  the  burden  light. 

Now  Christ  Himself  was  the  ideal  pupil  in 
this  school  of  His  heavenly  Father.  He  be- 
came incarnate  as  the  Son  of  Man  that  He 
might  live  this  life  and  work  out  this  arche- 
typal form  of  all  discipleship.  He  expects 
therefore  that  all  His  followers,  in  every  age 
and  in  every  realm,  will  become  pupils  in 
this  school  and  on  the  same  pattern.  This 
did  not  mean  any  narrow  conception  of  edu- 
cation and  life  training.  It  consists  with  the 
very  highest  types  of  expert  knowledge,  such 
as  have  been  reached  through  the  ages  by  the 
expert  masters  of  thought,  such  as  Coperni- 
cus, Newton,  Kepler,  Bacon  and  all  really 
educated  men  down  to  Gladstone,  Lord  Kel- 
vin, Sir  Oliver  Lodge  and  every  other  devout 
and  masterly  student  of  latest  time.  But  it 
is  also  a  school  in  which  the  youngest  and 
most  elementary  disciple  may  be  a  beginner 
in  childhood.  It  is  therefore  intended  to  be 
the  most  comprehensive  and  ecumenical 
school  possible.     But  its  prime  qualification 


62  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

for  matriculation  forevermore  is  a  spirit  obe- 
dient and  wholly  loyal  to  every  ideal  be- 
longing to  the  entire  soul. 

This  principle  has  found  a  marvellous  ex- 
pression even  in  the  kindergarten  philosophy 
of  Friedrich  Froebel.  The  child  almost  from 
infancy  is  taught  to  make  the  cube,  the 
sphere,  the  triangle,  the  circle  through  for- 
mations of  clay  and  sand,  in  order  that 
through  its  volitional  action  and  creative 
power  it  may  the  more  deeply  know  and 
conceive  the  thought  concretely  expressed 
by  action.  The  great  ''  father  of  modern 
philosophy, '^  Immanuel  Kant,  expressed  the 
same  principle.  It  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
profoundest  discovery  he  made  after  twelve 
consecutive  years  of  reflective  thought :  that 
in  every  experience  of  knowledge  the  whole 
personality  is  involved.  The  rational  soul 
in  an  experience  of  knowledge  is  always  active 
rather  than  passive ;  it  goes  out  from  itself 
and  unites  its  full  personality  with  the  ob- 
ject it  cognizes,  so  that  what  we  really  know 
is  a  composite  product,  a  "  construct  "  of  the 
object  cognized  plus  the  grasp  which  the 
active  soul  brings  to  it.  And  it  is  this  fact 
which  makes  our  knowledge,  although  rel- 
ative, a  dependable   knowledge.     It   is  not 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  63 

absolute  knowledge  like  that  which  God  has, 
but  it  is  godlike  and  in  so  far  reliable,  be- 
cause of  this  activity  of  the  whole  complete 
soul,  or  rational  ego,  of  the  man  which  enters 
into  an  experience  of  knowledge. 

The  great  philosopher  Hegel  recognized 
the  same  principle  when  he  taught  that  in- 
tellect, feeling,  moral  sense  and  will  all  enter 
into  a  real  personal  act. 

A  remarkable  expression  of  this  same 
principle  from  the  religious  point  of  view  is 
found  in  one  of  the  great  sermons  of  Freder- 
ick W.  Robertson,  entitled  ''  Obedience  the 
Key  to  Knowledge."  The  gist  of  the  whole 
sermon  is  simply  this  :  that  unless  a  man  has 
the  will  to  do  he  will  never  have  the  wit  to 
hnow.  If  a  man  abuses  present  light  he  will 
infallibly  incur  greater  darkness. 

Thomas  Carlyle  once  wrote  to  his  brother 
John  in  Naples,  who  was  floundering  in 
moral  doubt :  ''  John,  do  the  duty  which 
lies  nearest  thee  ;  the  next  step  will  already 
have  become  plain." 

It  is  of  the  very  nature  of  the  final  religion 
that  it  cannot  be  forced  on  any  one.  It  al- 
ways makes  its  appeal  to  our  power  of  moral 
choice  on  whatever  remnant  of  light  we  may 
have.     To  think,  therefore,  of  any  mind  as 


64  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

even  half-educated,  or  any  school  of  opinion 
as  at  ail  in  the  same  class  with  the  school  of 
Christ  that  is  characterized  by  indifference 
to  moral  and  spiritual  issues,  is  pure  char- 
latanry in  the  realm  of  education,  no  matter 
how  vast  may  be  its  endowments  or  world- 
stunning  its  equipments. 

Christ  indeed  never  wrought  out  into  de- 
tail any  scheme  or  curriculum  of  university 
work  as  such,  but  all  the  best  ideals  possible 
were  incipient  in  His  teachings,  and  He  was 
the  master  of  the  ages,  and  master  because 
in  the  first  place  He  was  the  master  disciple 
of  His  heavenly  Father.  And  any  university 
which  ignores  or  overlooks  the  principles  of 
Christ  as  its  foundation  stone  does  so  at  its 
peril,  and  the  peril  of  the  generation  of 
pupils  that  is  misled  by  it.  The  motto  of 
Harvard  University,  *'  For  Christ  and  the 
Church,"  may  well  be  pondered  afresh  in 
the  life  of  present  world  conditions  even  by 
Harvard  itself,  and  certainly  by  all  its  feebler 
imitators. 

The  teaching  of  the  apostles  of  Christ  also 
was  all  in  line  with  the  foregoing  and  in 
further  explication  of  it.  And  after  all, 
Christianity  in  its  last  and  true  analysis  is 
the  inspired  and  apostolic  interpretation  of  the 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  65 

significance  of  Christ's  person  and  worJc,  and 
not  a  mere  collocation  of  the  ethical  sayings 
of  Jesus.  I  mention  two  teachings  of  the 
apostles  on  this  matter.  The  first  is  in  the 
epistle  of  James,  the  Lord's  half-brother  and 
bishop  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  whose 
verdict  also  was  so  decisive  in  the  famous 
council  of  Jerusalem  respecting  Jewish  and 
Gentile  Christians.  James,  in  chapter  1  :  21- 
25,  is  dealing  with  the  practical  relation  of 
all  hearers  to  the  divine  truth  that  is  brought 
to  their  attention  and  these  are  his  words, 
somewhat  paraphrased :  ''  Wherefore  lay 
apart  all  filthiness  and  superfluity  of  naught- 
iness and  receive  with  meekness  the  engrafted 
word  which  is  able  to  save  your  souls."  The 
hearer,  however,  is  cautioned  lest  he  shall  be 
a  mere  "  hearer  of  the  word,''  for  unless  one 
promptly  obeys  the  word  when  he  hears  it 
he  is  sure  to  do  two  things :  first,  to  reason 
himself  astray,  and  secondly,  instantly  forget 
the  manner  of  man  the  word  revealed  him 
to  be.  And  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter  is  this  :  that  unless  the  reader  of  the 
word  stoops  down  to  humbly  peer  into  the 
word  and  search  it  as  Mary  and  Peter  did  at 
the  grave  of  Jesus,  and  so  discovered  the 
resurrection     of   Jesus — but    only  as    they 


66  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

stooped  down  and  peered  into  the  sepul- 
chre, so  only  can  a  reader  of  the  divine  word 
gain  a  vital  experience  from  a  reverent  obe- 
dience to  that  word. 

Here  is  one  of  the  ultimate  laws  of  Chris- 
tian experience.  The  witnessing  authority 
of  the  Holy  Scripture,  as  each  point  is  in- 
quired into,  precedes  any  direct  witness  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  school  of  Christ, 
hence  the  utter  incongruity  of  thought  on 
the  part  of  all  who  talk  loudly  of  the  the- 
ology received  through  experience  only  and 
yet  who  in  the  same  breath  discard  the  au- 
thority of  the  Scriptures.  Obedience  to  the 
written  word  properly  understood,  its  spir- 
itual meaning  once  discerned  as  authori- 
tative, is  absolutely  essential  to  all  intelli- 
gent and  genuine  Christian  experience.  The 
author  of  Hebrews  rebukes  weaklings  in  the 
church  who  still  "■  need  to  be  fed  with  milk," 
as  still  in  the  infantine  stage  of  things.  The 
author  declares  that  by  this  time  these  Chris- 
tians ought  to  be  able  to  digest  strong  meat. 
They  were  supposed  to  be  adepts  in  the 
school  of  Christ  but  they  had  grown  "  dull 
of  hearing  '^  and  so  they  had  become  "  un- 
skillful "  (or  literally  ''without  experience  ") 
in  the  word  of  righteousness.     And  so  they 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  67 

were  yet  babes.  Their  senses,  by  reason  of  use, 
they  had  failed  to  exercise  and  so  to  discern 
between  good  and  evil.  This  was  a  pitiable 
state  for  Christians  of  the  early  church  sup- 
posed to  have  been  long  in  the  school  of 
Christ.  And  it  is  just  as  pitiable  in  this 
twentieth  century  that  the  churches  and 
schools  are  filled  with  this  infantine  type  of 
Christianity  which  is  still  scorning  to  obey 
the  authority  of  God's  word,  is  often  hig- 
gling about  it  and  even  setting  great  por- 
tions of  it  aside  as  worthless  in  the  interest 
of  some  imported  rationalistic  philosophy 
which  talks  about  the  impossibility  of  many 
things  that  Christ  and  His  apostles  both  said 
and  did.  It  is  often  only  through  a  sub- 
mission to  authority,  whether  understood 
or  not,  through  the  yielding  of  intellectual 
pride  that  the  higher  wisdom  of  Christ  in 
some  paradox  is  discovered,  and  that  the 
human  judgment  becomes  of  any  worth  and 
the  apparently  impossible  in  experience  is 
realized. 

The  school  of  Christ  is  final  and  inexo- 
rable at  this  point.  Again  to  quote  Carlyle, 
"  There  is  no  remedy  for  mental  doubt  but 
moral  action."  Perhaps  Christ's  central  law 
concerning  inward  illumination  is  all  epito- 


68  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

mized  in  His  saying,  "  If  any  man  willeth  to 
do  his  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine." 
When  men  say,  '*  If  I  only  knew  the  will 
of  God  more  perfectly  I  would  do  it  better," 
they  are  mistaken  ;  they  reverse  the  terms 
of  Christ's  law.  It  is  only  by  resolute  action 
on  some  truth  already  known  that  men's 
minds  become  clarified  to  see  further  truth. 
There  is  never  more  than  one  truth  in  sight 
at  a  time.  That  truth  acted  on,  obeyed,  or 
surrendered  to,  the  form  of  the  next  truth 
will  emerge  out  of  the  mist.  There  is  no 
canon  of  criticism,  no  system  of  critical 
philosophy  that  is  worth  the  name  that  can 
ever  set  aside  this  basic  truth  for  all  criticism. 
It  is  the  ignoring  of  this  basic  principle, 
or  the  contempt  of  it,  that  has  brought  in 
like  a  flood  upon  the  modern  world  the 
myriad  errors  of  academic  philosophizing 
that  have  so  destroyed  confidence  in  the 
Bible,  New  Testament  and  old,  Christ  as 
well  as  Moses,  the  Gospel  as  well  as  the  Law, 
that  has  precipitated  the  diabolic  war  now 
ravaging  the  nations,  and  which,  unless 
God's  spirit  and  providence  shall  soon  inter- 
vene in  a  way  that  no  modern  time  has 
witnessed,  threatens  the  well-being  of  every 
mundane  thing. 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  69 

The  truth  is  the  period  is  passed,  if  it 
ever  was,  when  the  central  elements  in  the 
philosophy  of  Christ  can  ever  be  proved 
in  any  adequate  sense  by  mere  deductions 
from  a  syllogism  or  processes  of  mental 
reasoning. 

The  man  who  proves  Christianity  is  the 
man  who  lives  it,  rather  than  the  man  who 
thinks  about  it,  no  matter  how  cleverly  he 
speculates. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  child,  whose 
whole  composite  nature  responds  loyally  to 
the  truth  he  sees,  walks  right  inside  the  truth 
and  incarnates  it,  where  the  proud,  self-willed 
philosopher  misses  it  altogether.  Thus  is 
the  realization  of  God  possible  in  the  mys- 
tical realm,  a  realm  which  not  otherwise 
yields  up  its  secret.  It  is  this  which  John's 
first  epistle  so  emphasizes,  an  epistle  in 
which  the  apostle  thirty  times  over  affirms 
that  *'  we  know,"  e.  g.j  "  For  we  know  that 
the  Son  of  God  is  come  and  hath  given 
us  an  understanding,  that  we  might  know 
him  that  is  true  (or  real),  and  we  are 
in  him  that  is  real,  even  in  his  Son,  Jesus 
Christ.  This  is  the  real  God  and  eternal 
life." 

This  school  of  Christ  is  the  profoundest 


70  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

school  the  world  ever  knew  or  can  know 
because  it  is  the  school  of  real,  deep  and  pro- 
found, composite  living  of  a  life  inwrought 
by  the  Spirit  of  God. 


IV 

THE  CUBE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM 

IN  an  address  to  young  ministers  there  is 
a  peculiar  pertinency  in  this  theme.  In 
every  parish  with  which  you  will  ever 
have  to  deal  you  will  find  a  number  of  most 
interesting  personages  who,  for  some  reason 
or  other,  have  failed  to  connect  with  the 
Christian  certitudes.  The  reasons  for  this 
may  be  varied,  but  the  phenomenon  you  will 
face  among  both  men  and  women.  Many 
of  these  people  are  highly  intellectual — often 
esthetic  and  cultivated,  and  wielding  large  in- 
fluence. You  will  find  yourselves  deploring 
the  states  of  mind  into  which  they  have 
fallen,  and  longing  for  their  recovery — for, 
other  things  being  equal,  they  would  become 
a  large  asset  to  the  church  ;  and  if  won  they 
would  immensely  enhance  your  influence  as 
a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ. 

In  most  parishes  at  least  three  types  of 
agnostics  may  be  found.  (1)  The  out  and  out 
worldlings ;  they  have  been  swept  off"  their 

71 


72  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

feet  by  the  lures  and  fascinations  of  those 
who  as  yet  have  no  vision  of  the  eternal  or 
practical  sense  of  the  future  world.  (2)  The 
cynics — people  who  have  been  injured,  de- 
ceived and  in  part  soured  by  their  contact 
perhaps  with  a  bad  type  of  religionist  and 
they  have  reacted  from  all  former  confidence 
in  things  religious,  and  (3)  those  who  have 
reached  mental  conclusions  through  some 
process  of  false  reasoning.  Mental  pride  is 
one  of  the  greatest  stumbling-blocks  to  the 
realization  of  things  divine  and  eternal. 

I  begin  by  saying.  Never  be  misled  into 
the  idea  that  any  of  these  types  can  be 
brought  to  vital  faith  and  to  inward  spiritual 
realization  through  mere  argument.  The 
reasons  for  antipathy  to  God  and  revolt  from 
Him  are  far  deeper  than  mental  or  intellec- 
tual— in  the  end  the  moral  reason  must  be 
reached  and  motive  awakened  which  will 
constitute  in  them  real  candour,  make  them 
in  some  degree  lovers  of  truth.  Accordingly, 
the  method  employed  by  you  must  be  largely 
indirect. 

The  problem,  as  between  a  true  conception 
of  God  and  what  is  now  politely  called 
agnosticism,  is  to  ascertain  some  form  of  ex- 
planation of  the  world  we  live  in  which  has 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        IS 

the  fewest  difficulties.  This  is  at  bottom  a 
philosophical  problem,  and  the  process  by 
which  it  is  reached  is  through  a  philosophy 
which  embraces  far  more  than  mere  intel- 
lectualism.  Two  philosophies  are  possible. 
The  one  starts  with  the  human  soul,  with 
self-consciousness,  and  if  properly  pursued 
leads  straight  to  God,  and  to  a  theistic  view 
of  the  universe ;  the  other  starts  from  a 
molecule  of  matter — outside  the  soul.  In 
this  latter  process  the  soul  is  likely  to  be 
forgotten  and  through  a  kind  of  naturalistic 
evolution  the  soul  is  driven  to  some  form  of 
materialism,  and  this  is  always  agnostic. 

A  few  years  ago,  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Edison 
proclaimed  himself  a  materialist.  But  in 
that  announcement  Edison  forgot  that  his 
own  personal  self-conscious  ego  is  something 
unspeakably  greater  than  any  machine  or  all 
of  the  machines  he  ever  devised,  for  he  was 
obliged  to  assume  the  truth  of  the  verdict  of 
his  own  ego,  in  order  to  classify  himself  as 
representing  any  department  of  thought  or 
science  of  things  whatever. 

Now  in  any  process  which  we  as  finite 
beings  employ  we  must  assume  something  as 
hypothetical.  This  is  the  method  of  all 
science,  and   we  must  accept  this   basis   or 


U  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

nothing  in  all  our  processes  of  inquiry.  Any 
possible  result  which  we  shall  reach,  there- 
fore, will  never  amount  to  what  in  mathe- 
matics is  called  a  demonstration.  We  are 
not  absolute  beings.  We  may,  however, 
reach  results  relatively  true  always  in  a  pro- 
gressive measure  and  to  be  depended  on  for 
all  the  practical  issues  of  this  life  and  the 
life  to  come. 

In  my  early  student  days  I  was  greatly 
helped  by  Dr.  George  W.  Northrup  who,  in 
discussing  various  views  of  the  world  and 
systems  of  thought,  was  accustomed  to  say, 
*'  Gentlemen,  remember  that  you  are  not 
required  as  finite  beings  to  have  a  view 
which  is  free  from  intellectual  difficulties. 
All  that  you  are  required  to  have  is  a  view 
which  as  one  of  several  possible  ones  has  the 
fewest  difficulties — it  is  therefore  always 
philosophical  to  accept  and  proceed  upon 
the  one  which  has  the  fewest."  Endless 
confusions  in  thought  in  so  far  as  they  dis- 
turb our  faith  might  be  avoided  if  this  great 
utterance  were  kept  in  mind. 

We  must  not  expect  absolute  demonstra- 
tion respecting  things  in  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious universe,  because  they  are  problems 
so  deep, — often  deeper  than  proof. 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM         T5 

This  universe  is  best  explained  by  pre- 
supposing a  purposeful  thinker  behind  it  all, 
that  is,  a  supreme  subject  mind  has  conceived 
it  and  put  it  forth  for  his  own  manifestation 
and  for  our  contemplation  and  joy. 

When  in  Germany  three  years  ago,  I  was 
taken  one  day  by  Professor  Eucken  to  call 
on  Professor  Earnest  Haeckel,  who  is  the 
arch  agnostic  and  materialist  of  Germany, 
although  he  for  reasons  had  become  of  late 
rather  discredited  as  a  first  class  scientist. 
As  we  entered  the  room,  he  greeted  me  with 
the  question,  ''  Aren't  you  rather  afraid  to 
come  into  this  den  of  lions  ?  We  here  have 
the  reputation  of  being  dreadful  infidels.'^ 

I  replied,  *'  I  have  no  particular  sense  of 
fear  and  I  wished  to  see  the  lions  of  Jena 
anyhow  and  so  I  am  here." 

Then  came  the  leading  question  :  "  What 
do  you  think  of  this  scheme  of  things  in  our 
universe  ?  " 

I  replied,  '*  Well,  Professor,  I  am  not  here 
to  enter  into  controversy  with  you,  but 
rather  simply  to  pay  my  respects.  However, 
you  have  asked  me  a  straight  question  and  I 
will  say  at  least  one  thing  about  it.  I  reckon 
there  is  a  Thinker  behind  it  all." 

"  Oh,"  said  he,  ''  perhaps." 


76  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

"  No/^  I  replied,  "  that  is  certain." 

**  What  makes  you  so  confident?  " 

I  replied,  ^'  Your  own  necessary  basis  as  a 
scientist." 

''  How  so?  "  came  the  answer. 

I  queried,  *'  When  any  man  formulates  a 
science  on  any  subject  whatsoever,  say  chem- 
istry, are  not  order,  numbers,  combinations 
and  various  relations  implied  in  all  such 
rational  thought  ?  " 

He  was  not  prepared  for  this,  but  could 
not  deny  it. 

I  further  pressed  my  advantage  :  "  I  pre- 
sume you  believe  in  a  science  of  astronomy." 

''  Certainly." 

*'  Is  astronomy  based  on  mathematics  ?  " 
and,  *'  Is  mathematics  a  strictly  psychological 
phenomenon  ?  " 

He  was  obliged  to  admit  this. 

''  Who  is  the  real  astronomer  ?  say  Kepler, 
Copernicus  or  Newton  ?  And  did  any  of 
these  create  their  mathematics  or  simply 
discover  it  in  their  own  rational  make-up 
and  in  the  universe,  simply  thinking  the 
thought  and  order  of  the  universe  over  again, 
after  its  author  ?  " 

''  That  is  a  very  good  definition  of  an 
astronomer,"  replied  Haeckel. 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        77 

"  Well,  then,  if  one  cannot  be  an  astron- 
omer without  falling  back  on  an  order 
already  given  in  the  universe,  can  the 
Author  of  this  universe,  whether  you  de- 
scribe Him  by  a  *  He'  or  an  'It,'  be  less  than 
a  mathematician — the  supreme  mathemati- 
cian? And  if  so,  I  submit,  He  is  a  thinker." 
*'  Oh,"  answered  the  Professor,  instantly 
changing  the  subject.  "  Do  you  believe  in 
immortality?  " 

The  fact  is  he  could  go  no  further,  being 
obliged  to  admit  the  data  of  rationality 
itself.  In  other  words,  the  data  of  Theism 
are  at  the  bottom  of  everything  scientific. 

A  moment  later,  observing  a  picture  on 
the  wall  of  two  mammoth  apes,  painted  in 
oil  and  well  framed,  I  inquired  : 
''  Are  these  your  ancestors  ?  " 
"  Yes,"  he  replied,  with  a  little  chuckle. 
"  Where  did  they  come  from  ?  " 
"  Oh,"  he  replied,  ''  from  the  egg." 
"  Indeed  ;  but  who  laid  the  egg  ?  '^ 
Again  he  changed  the  subject ;    he  could 
go  no  further.     An  experience  like  this  was 
assuring  to  me,   at  least,  whether  it  was  of 
any  value  to  Haeckel  or  not. 

On  coming  away,  Eucken,  the  idealistic 
philosopher,    assured    me  that  I  could  not 


78  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

have  contrived  more  wisely  to  have  answered 
the  chief  of  agnostics  had  I  pondered  my 
answer  for  years. 

I.  The  agnostic  may  be  helped  by  being 
reminded  that  no  view  of  the  universe  pos- 
sible to  finite  minds  is  free  from  some  intel- 
lectual difficulties.  He  must  not  expect  the 
proof  of  Christianity  to  be  forced  on  him. 
Practical  personal  religion,  that  is,  a  personal 
realization  of  God,  is  more  than  a  speculative 
question — a  question  for  the  mere  mind  to 
deal  with  in  the  realm  of  thought.  The  evi- 
dence for  Christianity  is  always  deeper  than 
any  argument  for  it,  deeper  than  proof. 
It  is  grounded  in  intuitional  experiences, 
which  involve  the  combined  action  of  all  the 
elements  in  personality.  There  are  factors 
in  this  that  belong  to  the  very  being  of  ra- 
tionality (which  is  more  than  a  deliverance 
of  the  power  to  reason).  These  factors  in  ra- 
tionality are  born  in  us.  Functions  like  con- 
science and  freedom  to  choose  are  matters  of 
consciousness.  They  need  no  proof.  In  fact, 
the  proof  of  the  experiences  in  which  their 
employment  results  is  an  ever-growing  proof. 
A  very  able  thinker,  the  late  Prof.  Geo.  Wm. 
Knox,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  in  his 
most  important  book,  entitled  ''  The  Funda- 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGISIOSTICISM        79 

mental  Beliefs  of  Christianity,"  has  said  that 
Christianity  will  never  be  completely  and 
finally  proved  in  the  objective  sense  until  the 
last  Christian  has  been  brought  home  to  God 
and  the  product  is  glorified  in  the  next  life. 
The  proof  we  have,  however,  is  a  reliable 
one  and  most  dependable  even  though  it  is 
relative.  From  this  point  of  view,  I  think  I 
shall  be  understood  when  I  assert  that  with 
the  factors  born  in  us  as  intuitional  and  such 
as  are  axiomatic,  we  may  say  that  all  normal 
souls  are  born  with  the  fundamental  data  for 
God  and  spiritual  things  constitutional  in 
themselves.  God  Himself  in  the  creation  of 
our  rationality  has  made  us  for  faith  and  not 
for  doubt.  We  are  born  to  see  things  as  they 
are  rather  than  as  they  are  not.  Thus  we 
are  born  dogmatists  in  this  exalted  sense  of 
the  term,  and  we  may  be  thankful — every 
agnostic  ought  also  to  be  thankful — that 
such  a  bias  towards  truth  and  reality  has 
been  put  into  our  very  natures  by  the  Creator 
from  the  start.  There  are  evidences,  proofs 
deeper  than  logic  can  afford.  The  first  thing 
in  all  candour  that  an  agnostic  ought  to  do 
mentally  is  to  take  an  inventory  of  ''  the 
stock  in  trade  "  with  which  God  has  set  him 
up  and  endowed  him  in  this  universe,  and 


80  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

this  will  go  far  to  resolve  his  agnostic  unbe- 
lief. 

Ex-President  Patton  of  Princeton  last 
summer  at  Northfield  put  the  matter  thus : 

*'  Men  sometimes  say,  '  Granted  that  the 
arguments  in  favour  of  Christianity  make 
the  system  as  a  whole  probably  true,  but  is 
it  not  barely  possible  that  some  other  theory 
of  things  will  do  as  well  ?  '  Suppose  that  be 
so,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  You 
cannot  remain  neutral  in  this  realm.  A 
man  says  to  me,  '  I  propose  a  trip  to  Europe 
and  I  want  to  know  on  what  kind  of  a 
vessel  I  had  better  go.'  I  reply, '  Well,  there 
is  a  vessel  down  at  the  wharf  known  as  the 
Mauretania.  It  has  a  splendid  record,  a 
superb  captain  and  a  picked  crew  If  you 
embark  on  that  ship  there  is  every  proba- 
bility that  you  will  have  a  safe  voyage.  But 
there  is  another  vessel,  a  sort  of  leaky  tub 
that  has  a  drunken  captain  and  a  mutinous 
crew.  I  think  the  chances  are  doubtful  of 
making  a  safe  voyage  on  that  vessel,  but  of 
course,  if  you  want  to  do  it  you  can  take 
that  ship.'  He  replies,  '  Well,  I  will  think 
it  over.'  The  next  day  he  comes  around  and 
inquires,  '  Did  I  understand  you  that  you 
would  make  an  affidavit  proving  beyond  a 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        81 

doubt  that  that  Canard  Steamer  would  gc 
over  the  ocean  all  right,  and  that  the  other 
vessel  would  surely  go  to  the  bottom  ?  '  '  No, 
1  didn't  exactly  say  that,  but  I  did  say  there 
was  very  great  likelihood  of  it/  To  this  my 
friend  replies,  '  I  have  been  thinking  this 
over  a  good  deal  and  I  have  concluded  that 
if  you  could  not  prove  that  this  vessel  is  go- 
ing over  safely  beyond  a  doubt,  and  that  the 
other  is  going  to  the  bottom,  I  shall  take  the 
leaky  vessel.'  '  Oh,  well,'  I  say,  'that  is  for 
you  to  decide.  The  risk  is  yours,  not  mine. 
If  you  want  to  go  to  sea  on  a  raft  or  an  egg- 
shell, go  ;  but  my  conscience  is  clear  after  I 
have  told  you  in  all  earnestness  which  is  the 
better  vessel  on  which  to  embark.'  "  I  know 
of  no  better  way  of  putting  it.  The  common 
sense  way  is  always  to  act  on  the  line  of 
chief  probability.  Butler's  great  work  on 
the  Analogy  has  taught  us  that  we  live  in 
that  kind  of  a  universe  which  requires  such 
action  of  rational  and  moral  beings. 

Most  agnostics  of  our  time  have  been  led 
into  mental  confusion  through  their  supposi- 
tion that  any  datum  of  science  external  to 
themselves  can  ever  of  itself  legitimately  be 
made  the  basis  for  a  philosophy.  The  realms 
of  science  and  philosophy  though  never  con- 


82  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

tradictory  are  dififerent,  and  their  functions 
are  different.  The  function  of  science  is,  as 
Prof.  Borden  P.  Bowne  has  taught,  to  ob- 
serve, register,  classify  and  name  phenom- 
ena. There  is  ample  room  for  it,  and  no 
artificial  limits  are  to  be  set  to  these  phenom- 
ena as  observed  in  the  whole  universe. 
The  function  of  philosophy,  however,  is  to 
account  for  and  interpret  the  deep  underly- 
ing causes  of  these  phenomena.  Science  as 
such  has  not  one  word  to  say  respecting  ulti- 
mate causes.  And  philosophy  has  no  war- 
rant for  shutting  out  of  view  any  least  phe- 
nomenon however  microscopic  or  however 
multitudinous  in  the  whole  cosmos.  But 
these  lines  are  being  trespassed  upon  ever- 
more by  men  in  confused  habits  of  thought 
or  by  prejudices  and  prepossessions.  Un- 
warranted dogmatism  prevails  in  both  realms. 
There  is  room  in  philosophy  for  the  use 
and  interpretation  of  every  fact  of  science  ; 
but  no  science,  however  comprehensive,  can 
legitimately  pass  over  into  the  realm  of  casual 
explanation  and  still  remain  scientific.  It 
has  exceeded  its  function.  Philosophical 
data,  however,  underlie  the  possibilities  of 
any  and  all  science.  Matter  can  be  known 
only     through     mind.     The     mathematical 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        83 

axioms  all  underlie  the  science  of  astronomy, 
of  numbers,  and  the  combinations  of  the  ma- 
terial elements  in  any  science  of  chemistry. 
That  is  to  say,  rational  data,  all  given  fac- 
tors in  rationality  itself,  are  antecedent  to 
any  and  every  process  of  inductive  science. 
Professor  Howison  in  his  ''  Limits  of  Evolu- 
tion "  speaks  thus  :  **  The  break  between 
physiological  and  logical  Genesis  ;  "  (is  en- 
tire). "  There  is  a  self-confessed  inability  of 
evolution  as  a  philosophy  to  supply  any  final 
explanation  of  the  primary  fact  upon  which 
its  own  movement  rests  ;  "  that  is,  evolution 
must  depend  upon  a  normal  process  of  the 
human  mind  before  it  can  take  a  single  step 
in  the  way  of  causal  explanation.  Professor 
Howison  goes  on  to  say  :  **  There  is  a  bound- 
less chasm  between  the  unknow^able  and  the 
explanatory,"  and  he  concludes  :  ''  Evolu- 
tion itself  (if  a  science)  must  rest  upon  the 
rational  nature  of  every  mind  involving 
mental  categories  or  relationships  to  find  its 
proximate  source  and  footing." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  no  evolutionary 
philosophy,  which  nowadays  in  one  form  or 
another  so  widely  prevails  and  has  made  so 
many  agnostics,  is  possible  as  a  philosophy 
unless  the  most  fundamental  data  which  lead 


84  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

to  theism  are  presupposed.  And  if  this  be 
true,  agnosticism  has  no  rational  foundation 
whatever. 

II.  The  second  element  in  the  cure  of  the 
error  of  the  agnostic  is  to  remind  him  of  the 
significance  of  his  own  proper  selfhood;  that 
is,  of  the  rational  ego  of  which  Kant  and  all 
other  competent  philosophers  made  so  much. 
This  selfhood  is  a  self-evident  matter.  Every 
normal  soul  is  born  with  the  consciousness 
of  it.  He  never  needs  to  prove  it — indeed 
he  cannot  prove  it ;  it  is  self-evidencing. 
Like  the  sun  it  shines  in  its  own  light.  It 
is  the  first  datum  of  rational  being.  A  child 
is  as  certain  of  it  as  is  a  philosopher,  only 
this  selfhood  is  more  than  mere  mentality — 
a  box  of  brains.  It  involves  also  other  ele- 
ments ;  it  has  sensibility  or  feeling ;  it  has 
moral  sense  or  conscience.  Still  further  it 
has  imagination,  and  it  preeminently  has 
volitional  power,  or  will.  All  this  belongs 
to  personality,  the  one  thing  in  the  universe 
most  like  God.  This  self-conscious,  abiding 
self  is  the  starting  point  of  all  thought  on 
any  subject.  It  is  a  composite  unity,  and  it 
has  also  remarkable  power  of  grasping  as  a 
whole  and  converting  to  its  own  uses  every- 
thing of  which   it   thinks.     What  we   call 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        85 

"  nature,"  however,  as  such,  never  has  the 
power  of  rethinking  itself  as  a  whole  and 
relating  itself  to  other  things — hence  the 
impassable  chasm  between  personality  and 
physical  nature.  This  self-conscious  rational 
self,  therefore,  is  the  very  instrument  with 
which  all  persons  work  in  every  domain 
of  thought.  It  is  never  proved  by  a  process 
of  logic.  It  is  so  born  as  to  assume  its 
own  existence  and  its  orderly  functions. 
This  spiritual  self  or  ego  furthermore  en- 
tirely transcends  the  organ  of  thought — the 
physical  brain.  Thought  uses  brain  and 
among  men  does  not  exist  without  it. 
Nevertheless  it  is  unspeakably  superior  to 
the  mechanism  of  the  brain.  Indeed  in 
infancy  that  little  something  in  the  infant 
which  we  call  the  soul  within  the  first  two 
years  of  its  infant  life  absolutely  sets  to  work 
to  modify  the  very  anatomy  of  its  own  brain 
by  deciding  in  which  of  the  lobes  of  the 
brain,  whether  right  or  left,  he  shall  locate 
the  physical  apparatus  for  the  understanding 
or  communication  of  words ;  accordingly 
every  right-handed  child  trains  the  left  lobe 
of  his  brain  for  speech,  while  the  other  lobe 
is  left  dormant,  and  the  left-handed  child 
trains  or  modifies  the  right  lobe  of  his  brain 


86  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

for  this  marvellous  power.  But  who  de- 
cides whether  the  infant  shall  use  most  its 
right  or  left  hand  in  the  first  tw^o  years  of 
its  infancy  ? — that  settles  the  whole  ques- 
tion, and  the  mysterious  soul,  even  though 
unconsciously  to  itself,  yet  under  the  Cre- 
ator's guidance,  takes  the  whole  matter  in 
hand  and  thus  shows  its  superiority  to  the 
brain  mechanism.^  Such  is  the  greatness 
and  the  mystery  of  human  selfhood  or  ra- 
tionality. This  rationality — something  far 
more  than  mere  mentality — is  the  deepest 
interpretative  thing  in  us,  and  in  our  think- 
ing it  is  to  be  preserved  at  all  costs  as  the 
very  base  line  of  all  our  thought  and  in- 
quiry. The  agnostic,  therefore,  must  not 
forget  it  or  overlook  it  or  minimize  it  if  he 
would  not  derationalize  himself. 

Moreover,  this  self-conscious  ego  when  it 
begins  to  act  in  its  higher  ranges  discovers  a 
certain  relatedness  to  a  supreme  and  absolute 
ego  apart  from  himself  and  above  himself  in 
the  image  of  which  he  is  made.  In  this 
sense  the  soul  often  suddenly  takes  what  a 
profound  writer  has  called  ''  the  leap  to  God," 
or  as  Tennyson  puts  it  in  his  ''  Higher  Pan- 
theism,'^ another  being  who  is  ''  closer  than 

^See  Thomson's  "  Brain  and  Personality." 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        87 

breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet," 
that  is,  this  being  so  transcendent  above  us, 
yet  immanent  within  us  ;  we  are  enshrined  in 
Him.  To  illustrate  :  when  a  wireless  teleg- 
rapher at  sea  in  the  hour  of  peril  communi- 
cates with  other  ships  or  with  stations  upon 
the  shore,  he  does  not,  strictly  speaking,  send 
a  message  as  we  send  a  letter,  but  he  becomes 
a  party  to  something  prearranged — apart 
from  his  own  present  action.  He  partici- 
pates in  a  correspondence  which  has  been 
previously  set  up  between  his  transmitting 
apparatus  and  the  corresponding  apparatus 
in  the  receiving  station  at  the  distant  points. 
There  is  an  intelligence  represented  at  both 
ends  of  the  line.  Through  this  correspond- 
ence, therefore,  the  operator  communicates 
his  thought  to  invisible  minds  he  has  never 
seen,  and  the  ship  is  rescued.  There  is 
something  akin  to  this  in  corresponding 
provisions  existing  between  the  eternal 
personal  God  and  the  soul  that  needs  Him. 
Moreover  the  experiences  of  millions  of  souls 
through  thousands  of  years  has  corroborated 
the  hypothesis  that  communication  between 
God  and  man  works,  and  works  well. 

The  primary  theistic  suggestion  posits  or 
assumes  a  hypothetical  Deity ;  that  He  mani- 


88  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

fests  Himself  in  part  at  least  through  the 
phenomenal  system,  and  that  He  ideally 
founds  that  objective  unity  and  prearrange- 
ment  of  relations  with  which  all  our  finite 
knowledge  of  every  sort  is  congruous.  The 
very  nature  of  knowledge  argues  the  corre- 
spondence between  our  own  ego  and  the 
supreme  causative  ego  of  the  universe.  This 
truth,  therefore — of  the  appetency  of  the 
human  soul  for  God — is  written  in  our  very 
constitution  ;  it  is  all  incipient  there  even 
though  we  had  no  Bible  at  all.  The  human 
soul  is  made  for  God,  as  God  is  preadapted 
to  His  creatures.  Accordingly  we  posit  God 
as  personal.  Now  while  this  does  not  compel 
anybody  to  be  a  theist,  it  at  least  saves  us 
from  the  necessity  of  real  agnostic  doubt ; 
it  affords  us  a  basis  for  a  growing  certainty 
respecting  God's  being.  It  does  not  afford 
us  an  absolute  philosophy  such  as  God  has, 
but  it  does  give  us  a  philosophy  in  which 
man  though  finite  is  sensible  of  being  related 
to  the  absolute,  and  so  we  have  at  least  a  clue 
to  greater  things,  which,  as  we  pursue  it, 
leads  evermore  to  better  and  higher  things — 
thus  we  are  not  orphans  in  God's  universe, 
even  though  we  are  but  *'  children  crying  for 
a  light." 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        89 

Now  if  some  should  say  this  is  highly 
metaphysical,  I  reply  that  all  rational  beings, 
if  rational  at  all,  are  born  metaphysicians. 
The  practical  question  being  whether  our 
metaphysics  is  valid  or  incompetent,  and  in 
need  of  training. 

III.  But  the  most  vital  thing  to  press  on 
the  attention  of  the  agnostic  is  that  religion 
presupposes  interrelationship  between  per- 
sons. In  the  whole  world  of  physical 
sciences  many  are  misled  because  they  seek 
for  God,  if  indeed  they  seek  for  Him  at  all, 
on  the  basis  of  materialism  only,  but  God  is 
never  found  through  material  data,  but 
through  personal  data. 

To  make  this  concrete,  I  refer  to  two  highly 
scientific  men  who  after  years  of  agnostic 
wandering  were  at  length  brought  back  to 
faith  when  clearly  realizing  that  religion 
presupposes  relations  between  persons.  The 
Reverend  John  T.  Gulick  of  Honolulu, 
Hawaii,  and  Prof.  John  Romanes  were 
peculiarly  brought  together  on  this  matter. 
Gulick  has  devoted  a  long  lifetime  to  mission 
work  in  China,  Japan  and  the  Hawaiian 
Islands.  He  has  attained  to  uncommon 
eminence  as  a  scientist  through  it  all, 
and    an    evolutionist  of  the   theistic   type. 


90  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Romanes,  as  all  the  world  knows,  was  a  close 
follower  of  Darwin  for  twenty  years  and  be- 
came a  thorough  materialist.  Yet  these  two 
men  were  singularly  brought  into  fellowship 
through  the  appreciation  on  the  part  of 
Romanes  of  certain  scientific  papers  which 
Gulick  had  written.  They  corresponded  for 
long,  Gulick  personally  visited  Romanes  in 
England,  and  they  became  mutual  friends 
and  admirers.  Gulick  meanwhile  urged  no 
religious  claims  on  Romanes. 

At  length  one  Christmas  Day  Romanes  in 
England  sat  down  and  wrote  to  Gulick  a 
confidential  and  heartfelt  inquiry  in  some 
such  form  as  this  :  '*  I  have  long  wanted  to 
ask  you,  my  friend,  how  you  and  others  like 
Lord  Kelvin,  Professor  Tait  and  Clerk  Max- 
well could  be  scientists  and  yet  hold  to  your 
Christian  faith,  a  faith  the  loss  of  which  has 
caused  me  deep  distress  for  years.''  This 
was  the  question  for  which  Gulick  had  long 
waited.  He  replied  as  follows  :  ''  There  is 
no  proof  of  theism  in  the  Christian  religion 
so  strong  as  the  fact  of  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ  Himself.  He  is  Christianity,  and  in 
some  way  brings  God  and  man  together. 
Again  consider  that  there  is  nothing  more 
certain  than  the  personal  relation  between  a 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM         91 

mother  and  her  child  ;  they  mutually  appeal 
and  respond  to  each  other,  but  the  relation 
is  presupposed  and  constitutional.  So  if  one 
would  find  God,  he  will  never  find  Him 
through  material  data,  that  is  the  lotuer  trail 
which  you  have  been  long,  vainly  pursuing 
for  the  knowledge  of  God,  however  valuable 
it  may  have  been  in  the  realm  of  physics. 
You  need  to  strike  the  higher  trail,  and  to 
do  this,  you  must  presuppose  the  personal 
interrelations  between  your  own  soul  and 
God,  considered  at  first  as  mere  hypothesis. 
We  all  do  this  in  science.  All  evolutionary 
science  has  proceeded  on  a  hypothesis — never 
yet  exactly  proven,  although  we  think  pro- 
gressively proven,  only  admitting  an  en- 
abling God  behind  it.  So,  if  you  would  find 
God,  you  must  presuppose  Him  on  the  gen- 
eral testimony  of  your  own  rational  being,  of 
revelation  and  Christian  history.  Put  it  to 
the  test,  by  actual  experimentation  and  along 
this  higher  trail  you  will  find  the  God  you 
had  lost."  Romanes  welcomed  the  sugges- 
tion as  well  as  other  helpful  hints  given  him 
by  eminent  English  friends  like  Canon  Gore, 
and  so  returned  to  faith,  and  at  length  passed 
away  leaning  on  its  matchless  consolations. 
I  give  another  testimony  of  similar  sort. 


92  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Prof.  Henry  Deveaux  of  Bordeaux  Univer- 
sity, France,  has  been  from  youth  a  devoted 
student  of  natural  science,  always  candid, 
morally  upright  and  sincere.  He  yet  for 
long  failed  to  find  the  evidence  he  sought 
for  the  truth  of  God  and  the  immortality  of 
the  soul.  He,  too,  like  Romanes  and  many 
another  scientist,  was  on  the  lower  trail.  He 
knew  not  yet — the  higher.  At  length  his 
Christian  father  died,  and  as  the  sons  bore 
him  to  his  burial,  the  son  Henry  more  deeply 
inquired,  "  Is  this  the  end  of  my  father — 
shall  I  never  more  see  him?"  and  the 
thought  became  intolerable.  At  length  he 
sought  companionship  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  Paris.  It  was 
proposed  to  send  two  French  representatives 
to  one  of  the  student  conferences  in  Moody's 
time  at  Northfield.  Deveaux,  although 
without  knowledge  of  the  English  language 
and  rather  shrinking  from  the  proposal,  at 
length  came  with  the  distinguished  Theodore 
Monod  of  Paris  as  his  companion  and  inter- 
preter. On  landing  in  New  York  they  were 
made  the  guests  in  this  country  of  a  well-to- 
do  philanthropic  man  who  sent  them  to 
Northfield.  They  were  met  at  the  station  by 
Mr.   Moody  himself,  and  a  still  deeper  im- 


THE  CURE  FOR  AGNOSTICISM        93 

pression  was  made  on  Deveaux  by  the  strik- 
ing personality  and  whole-hearted  friend- 
liness of  Mr.  Moody,  who  drove  them  to 
their  lodgings.  Day  by  day  they  attended 
the  conference,  Monod  writing  on  cards  in 
French  the  gist  of  the  addresses  for  Deveaux, 
bat  no  change  came  to  Deveaux  until  the 
last  day  but  one  prior  to  the  close  of  the  con- 
ference. Up  to  this  time  he  realized  that  he 
had  mentally  inquired  after  God  and  his 
moral  sense  told  him  that  when  he  found 
God  he  should  find  Him  holy,  the  final 
arbiter  of  this  universe,  and  he  was  in  great 
distress  because  he  could  get  no  further, 
although  he  had  strongly  hoped  in  the 
atmosphere  of  Moody  and  Northfield  he 
might  find  the  data  for  God.  At  length  in 
shear  desperation  he  entered  his  chamber, 
sat  down  at  the  table  and  wrote  out  a  brief 
covenant  in  which  by  an  act  of  will  he  gave 
over  his  entire  being  in  complete  surrender 
and  abandon  to  the  liypothetical  Christ  of  the 
New  Testament  whom  the  apostles  and  the 
whole  Church  ever  since  have  affirmed  to  be 
alive.  He  then  fell  flat  upon  his  face  upon 
the  floor  and  read  aloud  this  devotement  of 
himself  to  Christ,  and  he  collapsed.  All  was 
dark  for  a  moment  and  then  the  light  of 


94  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Christ  instantly  broke  upon  him,  and  he  was 
in  a  new  world.  He  also  discovered  in  that 
moment  the  soul's  immortality,  and  ex- 
claimed, *'My  father  also  is  alive  and  I  shall 
one  day  see  him  ! ''  Thus  "  life  and  immor- 
tality ^^  in  one  and  the  same  moment  were 
''  brought  to  light "  through  that  surrender 
of  will.  For  the  first  time  in  Deveaux's  life 
the  whole  composite  soul  had  acted  as  a 
unity  Godward.  He  shortly  after  returned 
to  France  and  from  that  day  to  this  has  been 
the  foremost  interpreter  of  the  harmony 
between  science  and  revelation,  and  has  par- 
ticipated with  Dr.  Reuben  Saillens  of  Paris 
in  Christian  conferences  from  year  to  year  in 
many  important  centers  in  France  and 
Switzerland.  Deveaux  gave  an  entire  even- 
ing to  me  while  I  was  in  Morges,  Switzer- 
land, in  1913,  giving  to  myself  and  others 
the  details  of  his  escape  from  materialistic 
agnosticism  into  Christian  faith. 

In  order  to  help  the  agnostic  these  three 
points  at  which  he  misses  the  way  should  be 
clearly  in  view. 


V 
THE  CLUE  TO  CEETAINTY  IN  EELIGION 

THERE  was  a  time  in  my  religious 
thinking  when  I  fear  I  had  the  idea 
that  I  was  required  to  set  out  before 
an  unbeliever's  mind  practically  a  whole 
system  of  theology  in  order  to  convert  him. 
But  I  long  since  dismissed  that  idea  :  and 
the  longer  I  live  and  labour  the  clearer  I  be- 
come that  about  the  best  thing  to  do,  the  only 
effective  thing,  is  to  make  some  one  point 
clear,  which  will  serve  as  a  clue  to  a  per- 
plexed inquirer  to  clearer  things.  It  is  not 
only  true  that  we  ourselves  cannot  expect  to 
impart  too  much  truth  to  a  man  at  once, 
but  it  is  equally  true  that  most  of  our  hear- 
ers or  pupils  can  receive  only  a  little  at  a 
time.  It  is  doubtful  if  most  listeners  to  ser- 
mons carry  away  with  them  more  than  some 
one  point  impressed  upon  them. 

There  is  also  one  important  matter,  which 
we  are  prone  to  overlook  in  our  endeavours 
to  help  others  into  the  light :  and  that  is, 


96  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

the  ever  present,  willing  power  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  who  is  far  more  eager  to  help  men 
to  the  truth  than  we  are.  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  the  Holy  Spirit  always  stands 
outside  the  soul  who  is  pondering  truth, 
pressing  more  than  **  fifteen  pounds  to  the 
square  inch,"  to  get  into  the  human  heart 
while  it  is  hesitating  to  take  the  single  step 
which  would  bring  divine  illumination. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  Christianity  al- 
ways puts  a  premium  on  the  man  who 
makes  the  most  of  the  very  minimum  of  his 
light.  The  world  is  full  of  people,  waiting 
for  a  maximum  of  light — a  maximum 
which  no  man  ever  finds.  There  is  never 
more  than  one  truth  in  sight  at  a  time  ;  and 
if  the  human  soul  were  loyal  enough  to  go 
by  that  light,  his  path  would  begin  to  shine, 
and  shine  more  and  more  till  the  perfect  day. 

The  great  Blaise  Pascal  of  France,  who 
died  in  middle  life,  in  addition  to  his  many 
writings  had  planned  a  discussion  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  Christian  religion.  He 
has  left  us  but  a  few  pages  interpretative  of 
what  that  philosophy  would  have  been,  but 
the  sketch  is  invaluable.  He  points  out 
that  the  very  nature  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion, the  final  religion,  is  such  that  it  needs 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  RELIGION    97 

for  our  good  to  be  partly  hidden  and  partly 
revealed.  Were  Christianity  so  plainly  re- 
vealed that  it  would  compel  acceptance,  it 
would  work  a  moral  injury  to  man:  it 
would  injure  the  will  and  the  moral  nature, 
while  only  accommodating  the  intellect. 
But  he  adds,  "  There  is  always  truth  enough 
in  view  for  the  truth-lover  and  darkness 
enough  for  the  non-lover  of  truth,  while 
leaving  all  such  also  without  excuse.  God 
is  therefore  always  a  Deus  Absconditus  to  one 
who  trifles  with  Him  or  with  His  truth.  It 
is  well  for  us  that  this  is  so.  God's  great 
problem  in  dealing  with  a  race  circum- 
stanced like  ours  is  to  retrain  the  moral  and 
volitional  nature.  If  this  is  to  be  done,  man 
must  learn  to  take  one  step  after  another,  in 
a  progressive  course,  and  so  relatively  he  will 
ever  rise  from  one  degree  of  certainty  to 
another. 

This  principle  also  holds  in  other  realms 
than  that  of  religion.  No  person  who  is  not 
loyal  to  a  clue  will  ever  make  progress  in 
mathematics :  neither  will  he  do  so  in 
science.  The  great  scientists  are  those  who 
have  at  first  caught  a  gleam  respecting  some 
**  working  hypothesis,"  and  building  on 
that  hypothesis  they  have  gone  on  from  the 


98  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

simple  to  the  complex  in  verification  of  data 
hitherto  gained  or  in  correction  of  them. 

A  really  wise  teacher  proceeds  upon  a 
similar  basis  with  his  pupil.  What  wise 
teacher  in  mathematics,  for  example,  will  sit 
down  with  a  pupil  and  work  out  problem 
after  problem  for  him  ?  This  process  would 
be  to  weaken  the  teaching  gift  and  it  would 
do  great  injury  to  the  pupil.  However,  on 
occasions,  after  a  pupil  has  undergone  the 
sweat  of  a  contest  with  some  difficult  propo- 
sition, say  in  algebra  or  trigonometry,  and 
comes  to  the  teacher  in  his  despair,  the 
teacher  may  afford  a  hint  or  give  him  a 
point  that  has  been  overlooked  by  the  pupil, 
who  goes  away  again  perhaps  to  burn  the 
midnight  oil  or  sleep  over  his  problem. 
The  next  morning  he  awakes  with  a  cry 
*'  Eureka  !  "  and  he  goes  to  the  teacher  with 
a  flush  of  victory.  He  has  the  joy  of  dis- 
covery, the  exhilaration  of  an  inventor  who 
has  mastered  a  hitherto  hidden  secret. 
Such  a  pupil  is  on  the  way  to  greatness  in 
his  line.  It  is  so  in  religion.  For  this 
reason  the  merely  speculative  in  the  realm 
of  religious  truth  accomplishes  little.  The 
clue,  previously  had,  must  be  acted  upon 
before  more  truth  can  be  realized.     It  was 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  RELIGION    99 

the  complaint  of  Jesus  that  men  were  ever 
rejecting  the  light  which  had  come  into  the 
world  **  because  their  deeds  were  evil." 
Accordingly,  in  John  3:21,  He  puts  the 
profoundest  of  spiritual  laws  in  a  few  words  : 
''  But  he  that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the 
light,  that  his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest, 
that  they  have  been  wrought  of  God.'^  Ob- 
serve that  this  "doing  of  the  truth'*  is  a 
very  different  thing  from  an  attempt  to  keep 
a  law  in  legalistic  fashion.  To  do  the  truth 
is  to  carry  a  faith  in  the  truth  into  conduct. 
This  always  develops  in  increasing  light ; 
and  as  one  walks  in  that  light  a  divine 
operation  is  mysteriously  wrought  in  the 
soul,  generally  below  consciousness.  The 
whole  teaching  of  James  in  his  epistle  re- 
specting salvation  by  works  is  not  contra- 
dictory to  Paul's  emphasis  on  justification 
by  faith,  because  the  works  of  which  James 
speaks  are  worJcs  of  faith,  and  not  works  of 
law.  Faith  is  therefore  always  in  moral 
attitude  of  the  whole  combined  personality 
towards  some  ideal  seen  ;  and  this  pursued 
leads  to  ever-increasing  light. 

Sometimes  sceptics  with  whom  we  meet 
expect  too  much  of  us  Christians  in  the 
realm  of  divine  mysteries.     So  long  as  we 


100         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

are  finite  we  shall  always  be  facing  new 
mysteries.  Every  mystery  cleared  up 
simply  widens  the  area  of  the  mysterious. 
But  it  makes  all  difference  whether  we  are 
passing  from  one  chamber  of  life  to  another 
or  whether  we  lose  ourselves  in  some  dark 
labyrinth  with  not  a  gleam  to  comfort. 

Some  years  ago  an  agnostic  acquaintance 
of  mine  with  his  wife,  who  was  a  parishioner 
of  mine,  asked  me  to  dine  with  them. 
After  the  meal  was  over  and  we  were  com- 
fortably seated  in  the  parlour  he  surprised  me 
with  this  question  :  "  What  do  you  do  with 
all  those  mysterious  things  you  find  in  the 
Bible?'' 

I  replied,  "  I  leave  most  of  them  where  I 
find  them." 

**  What  I  don't  you  pretend  to  explain  all 
of  those  mysterious  things?  " 

I  replied,  "  Far  from  it.  The  Bible,  like 
its  Author,  is  infinitely  deep ;  and  those 
mysteries  are  there  not  that  we  are  expected 
to  understand  and  exhaust  them  all,  but  to 
lure  us  on  from  height  to  height  in  our 
endless  exploration.  If  I  could  exhaust  all 
of  those  mysteries  I  should  cheapen  my 
future  heaven.  I  would  soon  need  another 
God  and  a  greater  one,  and  call  '  Next'     I 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  RELIGION  101 

should  need  a  series  of  Gods,  ad  infinitum. 
When  a  man  ceases  to  wonder  he  ceases  to 
grow.  His  possibilities  of  happiness  are 
gone.  He  is  finished.  So  it  is  no  stum- 
bling-block to  me  that  I  cannot  understand 
the  whole  content  of  divine  revelation." 

But  turning  upon  him  I  said  further,  *'  It 
is  now  my  turn  to  ask  questions.  What  do 
you  do  with  all  of  those  mysterious  things 
that  you  find  in  your  Bible?  Those  ques- 
tions are  yours  as  well  as  mine.  The  fact 
that  I  am  a  preacher  makes  no  difference 
with  the  case." 

*'  Oh,"  he  replied,  "  they  are  all  Greek  to 
me ;  I  can  make  nothing  whatever  out  of 
them." 

I  anticipated  that  answer.  And  I  pro- 
ceeded to  say  :  "  But,  my  friend,  I  have  one 
advantage  over  you  ;  I  have  the  clue  to  the 
progressive  solution  of  those  mysteries  and 
you  have  not ;  there  are  many  simple  and 
elementary  things  in  the  Bible.  I  long  ago 
began  with  those  and  I  have  found  the  path- 
way shining  more  and  more  with  celestial 
light ;  and  this  is  exactly  what  the  Book  it- 
self promises.  The  case  is  like  this  :  suppose 
you  and  I  were  on  a  summer  expedition, 
through  a  great  Canadian  forest.     After   a 


102         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

day  or  two  the  skies  become  overcast.  No 
light  of  the  sun  appears,  and  we,  alas  I  are 
without  compass,  and  we  haven't  the  native 
instinct  of  the  Indians.  Suddenly  you  in- 
quire, *  Where  are  we,  anyhow  ?  I  don't 
know  north  from  south.     We  are  lost' 

"  But  I  reply,  *  You  may  be  lost  but  I  am 
not.  I  have  been  this  way  before.  We  will 
therefore  settle  down,  build  a  camp-fire  and 
make  ourselves  comfortable  for  the  night, 
and  to-morrow  morning  if  you  will  follow 
me  I  will  proceed  to  take  you  out  of  this 
wilderness,  if  it  takes  a  week.  Three  min- 
utes ago  we  passed  a  trail  which  I  am  fa- 
miliar with.  I  can  easily  find  that,  so  com- 
pose yourself.'  Which  of  us  two  would  be 
better  off  in  a  case  like  that  ?  " 

Of  course  he  admitted  that  to  know  the 
trail  is  unspeakably  better  than  stark  bewilder- 
ment. 

For  the  most  part  men  and  women  all 
about  us  in  things  spiritual  are  bewildered. 
It  is  ours  to  know  the  trail,  to  afford  the  clue 
and  so  help  them  to  better  things. 

This  method  on  our  part  is  also  akin 
to  the  laboratory  method  in  the  inductive 
sciences,  for  religion  in  the  last  analysis  is 
just  as  scientific  as  physics.     There  are  facts 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  KELIGION  103 

of  soul  as  well  as  facts  of  matter  and  mole- 
cules which,  if  given  practical  treatment, 
will  bring  us  ever-increasing  results  for  good. 
Why  nowadays  do  all  well-equipped  colleges 
find  it  important  to  have  extensive  labora- 
tories in  chemistry,  physics,  biology,  etc.? 
It  is  that  the  students  may  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  passing  from  the  abstract  to  the 
concrete.  Accordingly,  set  to  work  in  the 
laboratory,  the  pupil  handles  the  various 
elements  to  be  studied.  He  makes  his  own 
combinations.  He  works  out  his  own  ex- 
perimentation, so  that  step  by  step,  he  pro- 
ceeds on  practical  experiential  lines  to  work 
out  the  theorems  of  his  text-book.  This 
course  pursued  for  months  or  years,  the 
student  becomes  what  is  called  "  an  expert.^^ 
That  is,  he  is  one  practiced  or  experienced 
in  the  realm  of  his  studies.  The  theorems 
as  wrought  out  have  become  a  part  of  his 
personal  history.  He  comes  close  to  nature ; 
he  catches  nature  in  the  act  of  her  wonderful 
alchemies  ;  and  in  the  end  if  all  of  the  text- 
books of  his  particular  department  were 
burned,  he  would  at  once  rise  up  and  create 
new  text-books  out  of  his  own  personal  mem- 
ory and  life  history.  That  was  what  Paul 
meant  by  "  my  gospel  " — the  gospel  that  he 


104         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

had  experienced  and  practiced  until  he  had 
become  expert  in  it. 

Years  ago  my  mind  was  attracted  by  a  re- 
markable passage  in  a  Messianic  portion  of 
Isaiah  as  recorded  in  chapter  fifty.  We 
read  :  "  The  Lord  God  hath  given  me  the 
tongue  of  the  learned  that  I  should  know 
how  to  speak  a  word  in  season  to  him  that 
is  weary.'^  But  I  inquired,  "  In  what  sense 
could  the  Messiah  be  said  to  be  '  learned '  f  " 
We  do  not  think  of  Him  as  an  academician 
or  a  scholastic.  But  going  down  into  the 
Hebrew  root  of  the  word,  I  found  it  meant 
^'  the  practiced,"  "  the  experienced, '*  and 
hence  mastery.  And  so  when  I  read  the 
rest  of  the  passage  :  "  He  wakeneth  morning 
by  morning,  he  wakeneth  mine  ear  to  hear  as 
the  learned — the  practiced,"  I  saw  a  richer 
meaning  in  the  ancient  word.  If  I  am  to 
hear  to  the  highest  advantage  I  must  be 
in  the  habit  of  daily  practicing  in  concrete 
form  the  will  of  Christ,  the  word  of  God, 
and  so  become  spiritually  expert. 

In  beginning,  therefore,  with  any  type  of 
mind,  more  or  less  sceptical  or  confused,  it  is 
of  utmost  consequence  that  we  find  some 
point  of  beginning,  some  point  of  contact, 
f5ome  common  ground  from  which  we  caa 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  RELIGION   105 

induce  the  soul  to  take  one  honest  step  for- 
ward upon  the  hypothesis,  really  already 
half-believed.  But  that  step  one  must  take 
resolutely,  firmly,  even  in  the  dark  if  he  is 
shut  up  to  it.  For  example,  there  came  to 
me  years  ago,  during  my  pastorate  in  St. 
Paul,  one  night,  a  sincere-minded  inquirer. 
He  admitted  he  was  in  the  greatest  spiritual 
darkness.  For  the  first  time  in  five  years  he 
had  come  to  hear  me  preach,  the  Sunday 
night  before,  on  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman 
who  cried  after  Jesus  for  the  healing  of  her 
daughter.  It  impressed  the  man  and  he 
reasoned :  '^  Perhaps  this  man  could  help 
me."  Seated  in  my  study  I  asked  him  to 
tell  me  in  a  few  words  his  religious  history, 
which  would  afford  me  some  point  of  ap- 
proach. He  explained  that  he  was  reared 
the  son  of  a  German  minister  in  Prussia,  but 
years  ago  he  concluded  that  his  father's  re- 
ligion was  too  rigorous  for  him.  He  left 
home  and  came  to  America ;  and,  said  he, 
*'  I  have  drifted  so  far  away  that  I  have  be- 
come frightened  at  my  general  unbelief.'' 

I  inquired  :  ''  But  have  you  no  faith  what- 
ever left  ?  " 

"  Oh,"  he  replied,  **  I  still  believe  some 
things." 


106         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGCOM 

"  Well,  please  tell  me  some  one  thing. 
No  matter  about  the  many  things  that  you 
do  not  believe.  Please  fix  on  some  one 
thing  you  do  believe  :  tell  me  that." 

He  thought  a  moment  and  answered  :  '*  I 
still  believe  in  God." 

"  What  I  A  personal  God  to  whom  you 
are  responsible  and  who  will  be  your 
judge?" 

"  Yes,  I  believe  in  Him." 

*'  But,"  I  inquired,  "  how  much  do  you 
believe  in  Him?  I  w^ant  to  test  your  belief. 
Do  you  believe  enough  in  God  to  act  on 
your  belief?  " 

''  A  man  ought  to,"  came  the  reply. 

''  Well,  then,  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to 
speak  to  your  God  as  you  talk  to  me." 

"  What,  do  you  wish  me  to  pray  ?  I  can't 
make  a  prayer ." 

"  I  am  not  asking  you  to  make  a  prayer ; 
made  prayers  are  empty  anyhow,  but  just 
talk  to  God  ;  that  is,  follow  your  clue.  You 
admit  that  you  believe  in  Him." 

"  But  I  cannot  pray." 

"Well,"  I  said,  ''let  us  kneel  down.  I 
will  first  speak  to  my  God  and  then  you 
must  speak  to  the  remnant  of  a  God  you 
have  left,  for  you  and  I  do  not  need  to  have 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  RELIGION   107 

precisely  the  same  mental  conception  of  God 
in  order  to  reach  Him.  Do  your  own  pray- 
ing ;  start  from  where  you  are  and  move  on 
to  where  you  are  not." 

I  prayed  and  when  I  had  finished  I  said, 
^'  Now  it  is  your  turn.  Forget  all  about  me 
and  just  speak  to  God  in  your  own  way." 

He  struggled  a  moment  and  finally  broke 
forth  :  "  Oh,  my  God  I  "  and  then  the  flood- 
gates  burst  and  a  volume  of  confession  of  sin 
and  wandering  flowed  forth.  Suddenly  he 
sprang  to  his  feet  and  exclaimed,  '^  Oh,  sir,  I 
feel  greatly  changed.  Will  you  lend  me  a 
Bible  for  to-day  ?  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that 
I  don't  own  one  but  I  will  buy  one  to- 
morrow and  bring  it  to  you  for  the  entry  of 
a  record  of  what  has  occurred  to-night." 

Here  was  a  case  of  a  man  who  took  one 
step  towards  the  light  that  he  confessed 
lingered  in  him  ;  and  what  is  more  here  was 
the  Spirit  of  God  waiting  to  break  in  upon 
his  soul  with  things  unutterably  glorious  re- 
specting the  fullness  of  His  grace  to  all  such. 

The  principle  in  all  of  the  foregoing  is 
that  embodied  in  Tennyson's  poem  entitled 
"The  Gleam."  That  poem  is  believed  to 
embody  the  method  and  stages  whereby  the 
great  Laureate  found  his  way  out  of  early 


108  THE  UXSHAKEX  KINGDOM 

scepticism,  past  early  criticisms  and  over 
stunning  afflictions  into  the  true  light  of 
Christian  faith.  The  principle  of  following 
the  gleam  fits  all  cases. 

It  is  amazing  bow  considerate  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  to  the  feeblest  step  taken  in  the 
direction  of  the  light.  Years  ago  I  heard 
the  well-known  S.  H.  Hadley,  successor  to 
Jerry  McAuley  in  the  Water  Street  Mission, 
New  York,  tell  this  story  of  his  salvation. 

At  the  time  he  was  about  in  the  last  ditch 
after  a  long  period  of  immoral  and  criminal 
dissipation  that  might  easily  have  brought 
him  to  a  long  period  in  the  penitentiary  ;  he 
found  himself  one  night  in  a  low  dive  of  a 
saloon  sitting  on  the  top  of  a  whiskey  barrel 
so  dazed  with  drink  that  he  scarcely  knew 
where  he  was.  All  at  once  there  strangely 
came  floating  into  his  brain  the  strain  of  an 
old  hymn  that  he  used  to  hear  his  mother 
sing:  "In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory."  As 
it  riveted  his  bleared  attention  for  a  moment 
he  found  himself  saying  :  ''  I  will  go  to  the 
Cross,  for  heaven  knows  I  need  it,"  and  as 
he  climbed  down  oflf  the  liquor  barrel  to 
start  on  his  vague  quest  he  stumbled  and 
fell  full  length  upon  the  floor.  "  But,"  ex- 
claimed  he,  *'  glory  be  to  God  I  fell  towards 


CLUE  TO  CERTAINTY  IN  RELIGION  109 

the  Cross,  and  Jesus  picked  me  up.  Re- 
gaining my  feet,  I  went  up  to  the  counter 
and  called  some  witnesses  around  me,  and 
said  :  '  Men,  I  am  done  with  this  business  of 
the  drink  forever.  Take  me  to  some  lockup 
and  have  me  confined  until  I  sober  up,  and 
then  I'll  come  back  and  tell  you  all  more 
about  it.'  "  That  one  step  from  the  liquor 
barrel  to  the  Cross  was  the  beginning  of 
days  to  S.  H.  Hadley,  albeit  that  step  took 
the  form  of  a  fall  upon  the  floor.  It  was, 
however,  a  response  to  the  gleam.  It  was  a 
pursuance  of  a  clue.  It  was  an  entrance  on 
the  trail  that  leads  to  the  light  that  is 
brighter  than  day. 

In  Bunyan's  **  Pilgrim's  Progress "  there 
is  a  very  realistic  picture  of  the  meeting  of 
Pilgrim  with  Evangelist.  Evangelist  is  try- 
ing to  point  him  to  a  little  wicket  gate  on 
the  horizon-line,  and  Evangelist  inquires, 
paraphrasing  the  account  somewhat :  "  Do 
you  see  that  gate  away  yonder?"  Pilgrim 
strains  his  eyes  but  he  sees  no  gate.  **  Do 
you  see  that  light  which  glows  about  it  ?  " 
"  No,  I  see  no  light."  ''  Well,  look  again  ; 
can't  you  see  a  difference  between  the  sur- 
rounding darkness  and  that  bit  of  twilight 
yonder  ?  " 


110         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Straining  his  eyes  again  Pilgrim  finally 
said,  "  I  think  I  do  see  a  difference." 

*'  Well  (in  spirit),"  says  Evangelist,  *'  you 
go  for  the  faint  dawn  you  see  yonder." 

Pilgrim  headed  for  it  and  was  soon  within 
the  wicket  gate. 

The  Magi,  in  their  typical  search  for  the 
particular  infant  of  old  born  in  Judea  of  old 
about  that  time,  had  nothing  to  start  them 
on  the  humanly  impossible  search  but  star- 
light. But  loyal  to  that  gleam,  whatever 
it  was,  they  found  their  way  to  Bethlehem's 
manger,  found  their  King  and  Judah's,  and 
returned  to  their  far  eastern  home  satisfied. 

There  isn't  an  agnostic,  a  sceptic  or  a 
darkened  soul  on  earth  but  might  be  helped 
out  of  his  darkness  and  into  the  day  if  we 
but  had  the  divine  skill  to  help  him  discover 
the  exact  point  where  a  gleam  remains,  and 
could  induce  him  to  take  one  earnest,  whole- 
hearted step  in  faith  towards  the  goal. 
Tremendous  is  the  import  of  those  words  of 
Jesus, ''  While  ye  have  the  light,  believe  on  the 
light — i.  e.y  treat  the  light  as  a  reality  ;  act  on 
the  light — that  ye  may  become  the  sons  of 
light."  "  I  am  come  a  light  into  the  world, 
that  he  that  followeth  me  should  not  walk  in 
darkness  but  should  have  the  light  of  life." 


VI 


THE  PAEADOXICAL  ELEMENT  IN 
CHEISTIANITY 

A  PARADOX  is  an  apparent  contra- 
diction— a  contradiction  in  terms, 
but  not  in  deep  reality.  Whenever 
in  Scripture  we  find  language  apparently 
self-contradictory  or  in  apparent  conflict  to 
what  is  elsewhere  said  we  may  depend  there 
is  some  great  harmony  deep  down  below  the 
surface  yearning  for  realization.  For  ex- 
ample, when  we  hear  Jacob  after  his  night 
at  the  Jabbok  renaming  the  place  of  his  in- 
terview "  Peniel  " — ''  face  of  God  '' — we  hear 
him  say,  '^  I  have  called  this  place  ^  the  face 
of  God,'  because  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face 
and  my  life  is  preserved."  But  the  Bible 
elsewhere  says,  "  No  man  can  see  God  face  to 
face  and  live."  But  here  is  a  man  who 
seems  to  contradict  that.  Ah,  yes  !  but  it  is 
the  spiritually  altered  man  after  a  momen- 
tous crisis  in  his  soul,  and  not  the  natural 
man,  who  has  thus  looked  into  the  face  of 

111 


112         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

God  and  survived.  In  other  words  the  point 
of  view  from  which  the  divine  writer  speaks 
has  to  be  kept  in  mind. 

In  the  paradoxical  two  realms  are  always 
presupposed,  the  temporal  and  the  eternal, 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual.  That  is  to 
say,  the  twofold  nature  of  man  is  involved 
and  hence  relation  to  this  world  and  the 
next  are  implied.  A  friend  of  the  writer  of 
ripe  years  and  profound  reflection  has  a  way 
of  saying  ''  that  the  paradox  is  a  necessary 
characteristic  of  divine  revelation."  That 
is,  in  all  revelation  there  is  a  call  to  man  to 
come  up  higher  or  to  go  down  deeper  into 
divine  truths.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  "  the 
natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
spirit,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him, 
neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are 
spiritually  discerned." 

Again  a  process  of  mere  intellect  is  un- 
equal to  the  paradox  for  the  reason  that  man 
is  more  than  intellect,  and  the  whole  soul  is 
involved  in  the  terms  used  or  implied.  In 
other  words,  it  is  personality  only  that  is 
great  enough  for  the  paradoxical.  Personal- 
ity is  the  one  thing  in  the  universe  that  can 
change  a  thousand  times  and  still  preserve 
its  identity.     The  matter  involves  the  rela- 


THE  PAKADOXICAL  ELEMENT      113 

"^tions  of  things,  and  relations  of  personality 
to  the  universe  are  manifold,  and  they  run 
out  on  higher  or  lower  levels,  as  the  case 
may  be.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  law 
of  so-called  sacrifice  is  one  of  the  sublimest 
functions  of  personality.  Sacrifice  is  not 
waste.  It  is  simply  exchanging  a  lower 
personal  value  for  a  higher  one,  as  Christ 
did  in  assuming  the  cross  in  behalf  of  the 
race,  or  as  a  philanthropist  does  in  behalf  of 
a  cause,  say  of  the  relief  of  the  needy,  or  the 
elevation  of  the  downtrodden.  One  of  the 
great  books  of  the  past  twenty-five  years  is 
that  by  Prof.  J.  W.  Buckham,  of  Pacific 
Seminary,  Berkeley,  Cal.,  entitled  "  Person- 
ality and  the  Christian  Ideal.''  The  title 
implies,  and  the  book  discusses,  a  contin- 
uous process  of  rising  from  a  lower  to  a 
higher  form  of  personality  according  to  the 
Christly  type.  A  thoughtful  writer  has  de- 
scribed the  German  philosopher  Eucken  as 
making  so  much  of  this  same  principle 
which  might  be  termed  growth  from  indi- 
vidualism into  personality  in  these  terms  : 
"  Eucken's  aim  is  to  rescue  from  a  self- 
centered  individualism  into  a  God-centered 
personality."  Eucken  himself  in  one  of  his 
great    essays    on   ''  The    Modern    Man    and 


114         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Religion  "  names  as  one  of  the  first  ends 
of  religion :  to  ^*  limit  the  scope  of  the 
individual  and  place  him  within  great  rela- 
tionships and  to  subject  him  to  strict  princi- 
ples." All  this  implies  that  man's  relations 
to  reality  in  this  universe  stand  as  it  were  in 
a  series  of  hierarchical  forms  ;  and  each  in 
its  place  has  its  peculiar  claims.  That  is  to 
say  man  is  a  composite  being  and  himself  a 
profound  paradox. 

This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  truth  as 
such  is  a  matter  that  must  be  tested  by 
something  far  deeper  than  intellect,  that  is 
by  life,  life  in  many  and  ever  rising  forms. 

Hence  it  will  be  seen  that  if  Christ  is  a 
teacher  really  come  from  God,  and  especially 
if  He  is  jpar  excellence  that  teacher,  He  must 
use  paradox  in  tlfe  forms  of  His  teaching. 
First  of  all  He  Himself  is  the  supreme  para- 
dox. He  is  the  revelation  of  everything  in 
God  and  man,  ranging  from  the  most 
majestic  to  the  most  simple  and  tender. 
For  a  remarkable  discussion  of  the  paradox 
of  Jesus,  see  an  opening  chapter  in  a  recent 
book  by  Prof.  W.  C.  Wilkinson,  D.  D.,  en- 
titled "  Concerning  Jesus  Christ.'' 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  therefore,  paradox 
abounds  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  well  as 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT      115 

in  all  the  great  prophecies  concerning  Him 
and  His  religion.  If  one  could  see  the  pro- 
found unity  implied  in  the  truly  religious 
life,  let  him  group  and  read  together  four 
great  passages  found  in  the  Scriptures  illus- 
trating the  ability  of  the  perverse  heart  to 
sense  divine  truth  only  when  it  acts  morally, 
as  the  parabolic  form  of  teaching  presup- 
poses. The  references  are  as  follows  :  Isaiah 
6  :9,  10  ;  Matthew  13:14,  15;  Acts  28 :  25-28 
and  Romans  11  :8,  9.  The  reference  in  Isa- 
iah is  to  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died, 
when  the  prophet  was  commissioned  to  go 
and  declare  the  divine  message  to  recreant 
and  unbelieving  Israel.  It  is  stated  in  this 
form  :  "  Go  and  tell  the  people,  Hear  ye  in- 
deed, but  understand  not ;  and  see  ye  indeed, 
but  perceive  not.  Make  the  heart  of  this 
people  fat,  and  make  their  ears  heavy,  and 
shut  their  eyes  ;  lest  they  see  with  their  eyes, 
and  hear  with  their  ears,  and  understand 
with  their  heart,  and  convert,  and  be  healed. '^ 
That  is  to  say  the  prophet  is  to  utter  his  mes- 
sage and  give  the  people  a  chance  to  believe 
and  repent  even  though  it  was  foreseen  their 
perverse  heart  would  not  receive  the  message, 
albeit  a  remnant  of  them  would,  and  so  the 
holy   seed  would   be   preserved.     The   next 


116         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

reference  is  to  the  words  used  by  Christ  Him- 
self in  Matthew  13:14,  15,  in  connection  with 
the  speaking  of  His  parables  to  the  Pharisees 
of  His  time,  in  which  He  reaffirms  the  same 
identical  result  of  blinded  eyes,  dulled  ears, 
and  hardened  hearts  that  was  to  accompany 
the  declaration  of  the  divine  message.  This 
message  required  a  spirit  of  moral  suscepti- 
bility to  act  on  a  minimum  of  light  as  the  one 
key  to  the  understanding  of  the  whole  mes- 
sage; and  hence  Christ  said,  "  Whosoever  hath 
— hath  moral  susceptibility  implied — he  shall 
have  more  :  but  whosoever  hath  not — hath 
not  that  moral  susceptibility  requisite — from 
him  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  he  hath/' 
There  have  always  been  those  who  have 
criticized  this  principle  in  the  kind  of  pro- 
bation God  has  established  for  mankind. 
One  critic,  e.  g.,  says  that  the  words  of  Christ 
used  by  the  evangelist  which  accompany  the 
parables  "  seem  to  say  that  Christ  adopted 
the  parabolic  method  in  order  to  hide  the 
truths  of  the  kingdom  from  unspiritual 
minds ;  and  such  a  purpose  would  be  en- 
tirely at  variance  with  the  whole  spirit  of 
His  ministry,"  certainly  a  very  sweeping  in- 
ference, respecting  which  I  shall  shortly  have 
more  to  say.     The  next  classic  allusion  re- 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT   117 

specting  the  judicial  blinding  of  eyes  is  found 
in  connection  with  Paul's  ministry  at  Rome 
recorded  in  Acts  28  :  25-28.  It  marked  the 
moment  when  Paul  turned  away  from  longer 
preaching  to  the  Jews  and  gave  himself  more 
explicitly  to  his  ministry  to  the  Gentiles. 
This  fateful  decision  for  the  Jews  throws  us 
back  to  the  original  passage  in  Isaiah  I  just 
quoted.  The  issue  occurred  "  after  that  Paul 
had  spoken  one  tvord  " — but  what  a  word  ! 
"  Well  spake  the  Holy  Ghost  by  Esaias  the 
prophet  unto  our  fathers,  saying,  Go  unto 
this  people  and  say,  Hearing  ye  shall  hear 
and  shall  not  understand  ;  and  seeing  ye 
shall  see  and  not  perceive ;  for  the  heart  of 
this  people  is  waxed  gross,  and  their  ears  are 
dull  of  hearing,  and  their  eyes  have  been 
closed  ;  lest  they  should  see  with  their  eyes 
and  hear  with  their  ears  and  understand  with 
their  heart  and  should  be  converted  and  I 
should  heal  them.  Be  it  known  therefore 
unto  you  that  the  salvation  of  God  is  sent 
unto  the  Gentiles  and  that  they  will  hear  it." 
The  fourth  important  reference  to  the  same 
principle  is  in  Paul's  great  discussion  re- 
specting the  present  casting  away  of  Israel, 
pending  her  ultimate  restoration,  recorded 
in  Romans  11 :8-10.     The  writer  says,  *'  Ac- 


118         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

cording  as  it  is  written,  God  hath  given 
them  the  spirit  of  slumber,  eyes  that  they 
should  not  see  and  ears  that  they  should  not 
hear  unto  this  day.  And  David  said,  Let 
their  table  be  made  a  snare  and  a  trap,  and 
a  stumbling-block  and  a  recompense  unto 
them  ;  let  their  eyes  be  darkened  that  they 
may  not  see,  and  bow  down  their  back 
alway.'' 

Now  these  four  great  allusions  in  the  Bible 
from  Isaiah  to  Paul  bring  forward  a  matter 
of  the  most  momentous  consequence.  They 
are  all  intended  to  show  how  absolutely  im- 
possible it  is  to  understand  God  and  the 
moral  universe  except  through  loyalty  to 
some  ideal  already  known.  These  teachings 
are  not  a  declaration  of  arbitrariness  on  the 
part  of  God,  but  a  statement  of  the  law  of 
sequences  in  the  moral  order  under  which 
free  human  beings  have  been  created  and 
have  their  probation  in  this  life.  The  dread- 
ful sequence  that  came  to  Israel  of  old,  that 
came  to  the  Pharisees  in  Christ's  time,  and 
that  has  characterized  the  later  apostasies  of 
the  Jews  and  of  men  generally  of  all  times,  is 
a  sequence  that  might  have  been  avoided,  for 
just  as  certainly  as  the  sequence  of  the  judi- 
cial blindness  came  upon  the  obdurate,  so 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT      119 

also  the  alternate  sequence  of  possible  bless- 
ing to  the  believer  was  implied.  So  after 
all,  these  passages  all  teach  that  the  Gospel 
once  offered  always  proves  either  "  a  savour 
of  life  unto  lifeor  of  death  unto  death,"  from 
the  days  of  Cain  and  Abel  down.  The 
preaching  of  every  evangelical  sermon  in- 
volves the  possibility  of  both  sequences. 
Offers  of  grace  must  inevitably  work  out  in 
one  of  two  directions  either  to  melt  or  to 
harden.  This  is  not  primarily  an  intellectual 
or  sentimental  matter :  it  is  a  moral  matter, 
the  only  form  of  action  that  can  resolve  the 
paradox.  God's  dealing  with  Pharaoh  was 
on  precisely  the  same  principles  as  those  in 
which  He  deals  with  all  free  beings  under 
the  divine  moral  order.  The  matter  which 
God  forced  upon  Pharaoh  was  the  necessity 
of  choosing  between  showing  mercy  to  Israel 
or  hardening  his  heart  towards  them.  Pha- 
raoh having  refused  to  show  mercy  ^'  his 
heart  became  hardened,"  he  *'  hardened  his 
own  heart,"  as  the  account  itself  declares. 
^'  God  hardened  "  it,  only  in  the  sense  of 
linking  the  law  of  sequences  to  free  moral 
action.  This  resulted  in  judicial  blindness. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  how  immensely  impor- 
tant is  the  matter  of  moral  attitude  and  moral 


120         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

action  carried  out  in  life  in  order  to  under- 
stand the  deeper  things  of  God,  involved  in 
the  paradoxes.  Tliese  are  the  deepest  things 
in  Christianity,  the  most  central,  because 
they  bring  a  man  up  to  the  question  whether 
he  will  or  not  be  godlike.  If  so  all  is  well : 
if  not  the  second  death  ensues.  It  is  a 
serious  thing  to  live  at  all,  and  a  glorious 
thing  to  live  only  on  the  same  principles  on 
which  the  Godhead  lives  His  life. 

Now  in  turning  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
as  a  whole — those  teachings  which  consti- 
tute Him  the  master  of  all  the  masters — we 
shall  be  amazed  to  find  a  large  part  of  His 
definite  lessons  are  in  the  form  of  paradox. 
For  example,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
opens  with  a  list  of  ten  beatitudes.  The 
most  of  them  are  paradoxes,  truth  stated  in 
enigmatic  form.  Some  people  think  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  a  matter  easy  of 
performance,  but  how  different  is  the  case 
when  they  try  it.  Every  one  of  these  beati- 
tudes referred  to  is  prefaced  with  the  word 
'*  blessed."  This  blessedness  is  spoken  on 
the  supposition  that  each  beatitude  is  to  be- 
come a  thing  ex'perienced,  and  not  merely 
thought  about.  *'  Blessed  are  the  poor  in 
spirit " — i.  e.j  the   destitute  in  their  spirits — 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT   121 

**  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'^ 
*'  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart :  for  they  shall 
see  God/'  But  has  the  heart  eyes  ?  Cer- 
tainly !  Men  see  out  of  their  moral  condi- 
tions the  deeper  things  of  God. 

All  those  remarkable  parables,  to  which 
allusion  has  above  been  made,  presuppose 
the  same  form  of  moral  action  which  alone 
resolves  the  paradox.  That  is,  they  require 
moral  action  in  order  to  the  clarification  of 
mental  vision ;  and  hence  Jesus  said  to  His 
disciples,  '^  Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the 
mysteries — know  as  an  open  secret,  because 
your  hearts  are  right — but  unto  them  in 
parables,"  or  enigmas.  A  parable  is  a  hinted 
truth,  a  hint  which  only  the  spiritually  dis- 
cerning, the  morally  initiated,  ever  take. 

The  teachings  of  the  apostles,  particularly 
of  Paul,  are  often  in  paradoxical  form  because 
they  are  so  deep.  Their  meanings  never  lie 
on  the  surface,  but  they  reward  inquiry  and 
especially  conformity  to  moral  conditions. 
When  Paul  came  to  Corinth  ''  determined  to 
know  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,"  he  was  emphasizing  the  power 
and  the  wisdom  of  God's  coming  to  man- 
kind in  the  form  of  a  humiliated  Messiah, 
one  dying  a  felon's  death.     This  humiliated 


122         THE  UXSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Messiah  was  ''  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Jew, 
and  foolishness  to  the  Greek,"  ''  but  unto  us 
which  are  saved  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the 
power  of  God."  Paul's  characteristic  ex- 
periences were  all  on  the  paradoxical  plane. 
Hear  him  say  :  ''  As  dying  and  behold  we 
live,  as  poor  yet  making  many  rich,  as  sor- 
rowful yet  always  rejoicing,"  as  "  the  pris- 
oner of  Christ,"  "  the  prisoner  of  hope,"  and 
yet  the  freest  man  in  Cci?sar*s  empire.  His 
thorn  in  the  flesh  he  came  to  glory  in  as  he 
did  also  in  all  his  stripes,  his  imprisonments, 
his  weaknesses  and  infirmities  because 
through  them  he  found  the  strength  of  the 
divine  grace  abounding  unto  him.  No  won- 
der that  Deissmann,  the  great  New  Testament 
expounder,  says  in  his  masterly  work  on 
Paul  that  ''  Paul  was  a  bundle  of  paradoxes." 
He  was  the  most  many-sided  man  under  all 
the  conditions  that  beset  him,  Christ  only 
excepted,  that  ever  came  in  the  stream  of 
time. 

The  great  Lord  Bacon,  who  wrote  and 
discoursed  on  every  great  subject,  secular  and 
religious,  moral  and  spiritual,  must  of  course 
have  a  chapter,  as  he  does,  upon  '*  The  Para- 
doxes of  Christianity."  The  truth  is  there 
is  no  final  wisdom  apart  from  the  paradox. 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT      123 

It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  superfi- 
cial religious  critics  of  our  time  who  have 
done  so  much  to  undermine  divine  revela- 
tion and  to  vex  the  Church  of  God  eschew 
the  paradox.  They  have  (especially  in  es- 
pousing the  Nietsche  denial  of  the  paradoxes 
of  Jesus)  brought  untold  disaster  on  Europe  ; 
and  they  now  threaten  every  precious  thing 
in  our  homeland ;  they  overturn  ancient 
foundations,  prostitute  great  endowments  and 
falsify  the  testimony  of  the  Church  of  God 
the  world  over.  They  give  scant  attention 
to  the  paradoxical  teachings  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, if  they  do  not  fight  wholly  shy  of 
them;  they  admit  they  cannot  mentally  re- 
solve them,  and  having  put  out  their  own 
moral  eyes,  of  course  there  is  no  vision  left 
which  they  can  impart  to  others.  Their 
schools  then  become  mainly  schools  of  opin- 
ion. The  divine  life  in  their  own  souls  be- 
ing itself  suppressed,  they  of  course  produce 
a  progeny  of  agnostic  weaklings  further  to 
afflict  the  Church  of  God. 

The  vaunting  modernist  Gentile  world  in 
so  far  as  it  ignores  the  paradoxical,  or  be- 
comes in  spirit  or  will  disloyal  to  spiritual 
life  once  received,  is  headed  in  the  same  di- 
rection as  ancient  Israel :  the  veil  already  is 


124         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

covering  its  face;  and  unless  it  repents  it  will 
pass  into  the  same  judicial  darkness.  ''  For 
if  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  take 
heed  lest  he  also  spare  not  thee.'' 

I  wish  now  to  center  attention  upon  one 
striking  instance  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
meaning  of  which  does  not  lie  on  the  sur- 
face, but  involving  one  of  the  profoundest 
life  paradoxes.  It  is  the  account  of  the  rich 
young  ruler.  This  man  was  richly  endowed  ; 
he  had  morality,  official  station  in  life  and 
also  fortune,  and  he  was  young.  He  came 
to  Christ  with  a  patronizing  question  :  ''  Good 
Master,  what  good  thing  shall  I  do  that  I 
may  inherit  eternal  life  ?  "  Christ  at  once 
turned  the  point  of  his  patronizing  atti- 
tude by  asking,  ''  Why  callest  thou  me 
good  ?  "  There  is  one  good  and  that  is  God. 
What  you  need  is  the  good  One;  and  you 
can  have  Him  only  as  Master,  never  as  sub- 
ject. You  can  never  inherit  eternal  life  by 
doing  some  "  good  thing,"  for  the  reason 
that  you  are  a  personal  being  and  you  need 
the  good  God,  the  being  in  whom  all  person- 
ality is  grounded,  and  in  subjection  to  whom 
it  finds  its  highest  freedom.  The  ruler's 
proposition  was  a  large  one  ;  he  wanted  eter- 
nal  life   and    he  wanted   to    inherit   it ;  he 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT      125 

claimed  to  have  kept  the  commandments 
mentioned  by  Christ,  and  then  proudly 
asked,  **  What  lack  I  yet  ?  "  Christ  showed 
him  that  he  lacked  everything  that  was  of 
primary  importance  and  that  could  ever  en- 
title him  to  eternal  life.  The  exactions 
Christ  made  in  His  reply  seem  at  first  very 
severe.  "  If  thou  wilt  be  perfect  (and  that 
is  your  proposal)  go  sell  all  that  thou  hast 
and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have 
treasure  in  heaven  ;  and  come  and  follow 
me."  That  is,  Christ  invited  him  to  adopt 
his  own  personal  program  of  life  and  being 
and  so  become  truly  a  son  of  God. 

But  the  rich  young  man  could  not  endure 
this  test.  We  are  told  he  had  great  posses- 
sions— great  acquisitions,  properties  he  had 
acquired  by  his  own  mastery  over  material 
things,  and  probably  over  the  markets  of  his 
time.  This  habit  of  mind  always  creates  in 
men  an  undue  arrogance ;  it  gives  them  a 
sense  of  mastery,  almost  of  sovereignty  over 
the  universe,  and  they  relatively  forget  God's 
rule  over  them.  What  Christ  now  showed 
him  was  that  his  fundamental  life  need  was 
that  of  the  proper  captain  of  his  own  soul. 
The  ruler  had  forgotten  that  he  needed  a 
master,  and  he  had  become  oblivious  of  the 


126         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

fact  that  he  was  ah-eady  mastered  by  his 
money,  by  material  things.  The  truth  is  all 
finite  beings,  whether  they  know  it  or  not, 
are  always  dominated  by  something  :  money, 
pleasure,  love  of  fame,  lust,  or  other  things. 
All  finite  beings  are  by  their  very  nature  de- 
pendent beings.  The  utmost  they  can  have 
is  a  choice  of  masters.  There  can  be  only 
one  independent  Being  in  this  universe. 
Hence  Christ  was  setting  up  before  this  ruler 
no  hard,  abnormal  thing.  He  was  simply 
asking  him  to  become  normal  and  to  join  the 
Christ  Himself  in  a  program  of  life  the  truest 
conceivable.  But  failing  to  respond  to  this 
test,  the  ruler  '*  went  away  sorrowful."  And 
there  the  curtain  falls  as  he  passes  into  the 
night.  He  lacked  the  proper  master  and  so 
he  lost  all. 

Had  the  ruler  accepted  the  terms  of  Christ 
he  would  have  found,  as  we  shall  shortly  see 
from  what  follows  a  little  later  down  in  the 
narrative,  that  Christ  was  seeking  to  enrich 
him  rather  than  impoverish  him.  As  the 
ruler  departed  Jesus  pathetically  looked  upon 
him  and  said  to  the  disciples,  ''  How  hardly 
shall  they  that  have  riches — any  kind  of 
riches  that  usurps  God's  place  in  the  soul — 
enter   into   the  kingdom  of  heaven."     The 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT      127 

disciples,  shortly  recovering  from  the  shock 
of  the  failure  of  the  ruler  to  connect  with 
Christ,  replied,  ''  Lord,  we  have  left  all  and 
have  followed  thee  ;  what  shall  we  have  there- 
fore ?  '^  Then  came  the  great  reply  of  Christ : 
"  There  is  no  man  that  hath  left  houses  or 
lands  or  father  or  mother  or  wife  or  children 
for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's  but  shall  receive 
an  hundredfold  in  this  time — that  is  an 
enormous  per  cent,  of  increase — and  in  the 
world  to  come  life  everlasting."  That  is  to 
say,  Christ  here  uses  in  true  oriental  phrase 
a  round  number  implying  indefinite  returns 
on  the  investment  put  out  in  His  name.  Such 
a  return  which  far  and  away  outdoes  all  ordi- 
nary investments  accrued  as  a  loss  to  the 
rich  ruler  for  his  moral  obtuseness.  There 
is  no  market  in  the  world  that  pays  like  that 
which  Christ  affords  to  him  who  accepts  this 
proper  lordship. 

But  I  hear  one  say  :  **  This  is  a  Bible  inci- 
dent. God  doesn't  reward  on  that  scale  those 
who  follow  Him  in  modern  times  in  the  way 
He  proposed  to  this  young  ruler."  Well,  let 
us  see ;  I  have  an  acquaintance  in  East  Lon- 
don by  the  name  of  Frederick  Charrington 
who  has  for  many  years  been  at  the  head  of 
the  great  "Mile  End  Mission,"  one  of  the 


128         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

greatest  rescue  homes  for  inebriates  and  the 
*'  devil's  castaways  "  I  have  ever  known.  Four 
years  ago  last  summer  I  was  invited  to  dine 
one  Sunday  with  Charrington,  and  in  the 
afternoon  to  join  his  party  that,  preceded  by 
a  band  of  music  and  accompanied  by  a  num- 
ber of  workers,  goes  on  an  afternoon  march 
of  advertisement  and  invitation  to  the  thou- 
sands of  wretched  beings  who  populate  East 
London.  It  was  a  rare  experience  as  we 
marched  along  through  the  congested  dis- 
tricts. The  band  and  the  waving  banners 
which  preceded  us  attracted  the  children  and 
the  curious  by  thousands  at  every  prominent 
intersection  of  streets.  At  one  of  these  inter- 
sections the  band  stopped  playing  and  our 
party  halted  and  Mr.  Charrington,  addressing 
me,  said  : 

"  Do  you  see  that  sign  over  that  promi- 
nent saloon?  That  is  one  of  my  father's 
signs — '  Charrington's  Ale  ' — for  my  father 
has  been  for  a  lifetime  one  of  the  foremost 
brewers  in  East  London,  and  it  is  the  prod- 
uct of  that  establishment  that  has  helped  to 
work  much  of  this  misery  which  you  see  on 
all  sides."  And  then  he  added,  "  Twenty- 
five  years  ago  (or  thereabouts)  I  stood  one 
day  where  we  are  now  standing,  and  I  saw  a 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT   129 

poor  woman  in  rags,  with  two  children  tug- 
ging at  her  gown  and  hiding  behind  her  in 
a  frightened  way,  stand  at  the  door  of  that 
saloon.  The  woman  beckoned  to  her  besot- 
ted husband  who  was  inside  to  come  out, 
and  in  God's  name  to  give  her  a  few  pence 
that  she  might  buy  bread  for  those  starving 
children.  The  brutal  man  emerged,  but  in- 
stead of  giving  money  for  her  need,  he  struck 
her  a  fearful  blow  between  the  eyes  that 
felled  her  like  an  ox  at  the  shambles  to 
the  earth."  Said  Charrington,  "  That  blow- 
knocked  all  of  the  liquor  business  out  of  me 
forever,  although  I  was  not  a  Christian. 
Shortly  after  I  went  home,  and  at  the  dinner 
table  I  told  my  father  the  incident,  and 
added,  '  I  forever  repudiate  all  my  part  and 
interest  in  the  brewing  business.'  My  father 
answered,  '  You  are  a  fool ;  you  can't  afford 
that ;  there  are  millions  in  this  business  for 
you.'  '  I  can't  help  it,' "  replied  Charrington  ; 
*' '  my  mind  is  made  up.'  "  He  made  good  his 
word,  shortly  after  was  converted  and  began 
with  the  aid  of  a  few  friends  outside  his  own 
family  this  foremost  rescue  work  in  all  Lon- 
don. He  finally  built  an  enormous  hall,  and 
established  besides  a  great  rescue  home  just 
below  the  mouth  of  the  Thames  on  an  island 


130         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

in  the  open  sea.  And  he  has  never  lacked 
for  friends  or  funds.  Some  time  ago  a  liter- 
ary friend  of  Charrington's  who  had  been 
writing  his  life  proposed  that  it  be  en- 
titled "  The  Great  Renunciation."  To  this 
Charrington  replied :  **  Never  I  call  it  '  The 
Great  Acceptance/  if  you  are  ever  to  publish 
my  life/'  and  he  added,  ''  I  did  not  '  go  away 
sorrowful '  in  that  great  decision  of  my  early 
years."  The  calendar  of  the  saints  is  full  of 
names  in  all  lands  and  of  all  ages  of  those  who, 
unlike  the  rich  young  ruler,  have  accepted 
the  Lord  Himself  as  the  captain  of  their  soul, 
and  they  have  received  the  ten  thousand  per 
cent,  even  in  this  life, — houses  and  lands  and 
relatives  and  children  and  every  other  good 
thing, — and  to  crown  it  all,  the  life  everlast- 
ing. But  the  condition  of  all  this  is  that 
men  have  the  vision  and  the  faith  to  discern 
the  reality  at  the  basis  of  a  paradox  which 
requires  that  if  a  man  will  save  his  life  and 
give  it  "  a  living  birth,"  he  must  be  content 
to  lose  it  in  the  estimation  of  the  vain,  empty 
and  Godless  world. 

But  alas  !  how  many  miss  their  golden 
opportunity  and  fail  of  the  divine  exchange. 
During  my  pastorate  in  Indianapolis  years 
ago  a  young,  well-known  man  came  back  to 


THE  PARADOXICAL  ELEMENT      131 

that  city  from  Colorado,  a  victim  of  tubercu- 
losis, that  his  body  might  be  laid  away  in 
Crown  Hill  Cemetery.  He  was  a  young 
man  less  than  thirty  years  of  age.  Shortly 
before  the  end,  he  one  day  invited  one  of  his 
former  friends,  Stone  by  name,  to  take  him 
out  in  an  easy  phaeton  for  the  air  and  that 
he  might  ride  to  the  spot  to  see  the  place 
of  his  sepulture.  As  they  rode  along  this 
brilliant  young  man  conversed  with  his 
friend  Stone  as  follows  :  ''  Stone,  you  have 
known  me  since  I  came  to  this  city,  almost  a 
youth,  and  began  to  speculate  in  real  estate. 
You  recall  how  I  prospered.  Within  a  few 
years  I  made  a  snug  fortune  of  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  the  securities  for  which  are 
on  deposit  now  in  a  leading  bank  of  this 
city  ;  but,  Stone,  I  have  made  a  failure  of 
life.  I  once  thought  I  was  a  great  success, 
but  I  was  under  an  illusion.  Stone,  let  me 
tell  you  how  I  feel.  I  feel  as  if  the  eternal 
God  in  my  youth  put  into  my  hand  a  single 
candle  to  light  me  along  the  path  of  life.  I 
lighted  it  and  burned  it  all  out  for  myself 
and  for  myself  only.  I  burned  it  all  down 
until  there  was  nothing  left  but  the  snufF  in 
the  socket  of  the  candlestick.  There  is  only 
one    redeeming    element    in   the  situation. 


132         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

Stone,  the  other  day  I  took  that  snufF  and 
offered  it  to  God.  It's  the  meanest  thing  I 
ever  did.  But,  Stone,  would  you  believe  it, 
God  took  it  I  worthless  as  it  was,  and  gave 
me  instead  thereof  His  own  divine  and 
eternal  Self.  That's  the  whole  story  of  my 
life.     Tell  it  to  others  when  I  am  gone." 

Here  again  was  a  paradox  of  a  worthless 
thing  accompanied  with  a  breaking  heart 
given  over  to  and  accepted  by  God.  It  is  so 
strange  a  thing  that  multitudes  will  say  "  it 
is  impossible  I  "  And  right  over  against  that 
paradox  is  another  one  that  was  possible  to 
that  man  in  his  youth,  as  it  is  possible  to 
every  other  youthful  soul  on  earth.  That 
life  once  before  him  might  have  been  sur- 
rendered to  the  one  only  competent  master 
of  the  soul  and  of  a  true  human  career.  Had 
it  been  it  would  have  been  indefinitely  re- 
warded with  all  the  highest  values  of  earth 
and  the  glories  of  the  New  Jerusalem  for  its 
eternal  home  besides. 


VII 

THE  COSMIC  IMPOET  OF  THE  CROSS 
OF  CHRIST 

THERE  are  three  possible  kinds  into 
which  the  nature  of  our  universe  or 
system  of  things  may  fall :  the  de- 
terministic, the  legalistic  and  the  evangelical. 
The  first  implies,  of  course,  a  thorough- 
going fatalism  ;  it  conceives  of  matter  as 
eternal  and  self-existent,  and  all  the  appar- 
ently personal  forms  in  which  it  issues,  e.  g., 
in  the  being  of  men  as  irresponsible,  with- 
out power  of  initiative  or  freedom  in  any 
direction.  Such  a  universe  is  orphaned. 
The  legalistic  recognizes  a  proper  moral 
universe  with  personalities  human  and 
divine,  but  all  human  attainment  in  it  is  on 
a  basis  of  pure  merit  or  demerit  under  hard 
and  fast  legal  standards.  Such  a  universe, 
if  it  were  composed  of  pure  individual  units 
each  created  separately,  as  we  suppose  angels 
to  have  been,  and  without  a  common 
solidarity  and  heredity,  such  as  mankind 
has,  might  have  much  to  commend  it.     But 

133 


134         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

it  is  without  comfort  to  a  race  that  corporately 
has  fallen  into  sin  and  evil. 

There  remains  the  third  possible  view  : 
that  our  universe  is  evangelical.  It  was 
brought  into  being  by  a  Creator  who  would 
have  a  race  of  beings  made  in  His  image  and 
reflecting  that  image.  The  aim  of  this  cre- 
ation was  to  find  a  basis  for  the  self-manifes- 
tation of  the  divine  Creator.  The  goal  of  all 
was  worthy  of  a  redeeming  Creator  and  of 
such  vast  beneficence  as  would  in  the  end 
justify  all  the  pain  and  loss  incurred  in  its 
creation. 

Although,  as  must  always  be  the  case  to 
mere  finite  understanding,  mental  difficulties 
will  arise  respecting  any  one  of  these  three 
views,  yet  on  the  whole  the  evangelical  view 
has  much  fewer  difficulties  than  either  of  the 
other  two,  and  so  we  accept  it  as  the  most 
commendable  to  reason,  and  proceed  to  make 
clear  its  inherent  conceptions.  The  whole 
matter  is  organically  related  to  the  New 
Testament  conception  of  the  cross  of  Christ 
truly  regarded.  Moreover,  if  the  evangelical 
view  of  the  universe  be  the  true  one  we  have 
an  enormous  advantage  for  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  Grace  of  God. 

In  any  discussion  of  the  ways  of  God  with 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  135 

men,  it  is  of  first  importance  that  we  correctly 
present  our  God.  In  some  discussions  of  our 
great  question  there  is  often  a  misplaced 
emphasis  representing,  e.  g.,  that  God  the 
Father  and  Christ  the  Son  are  in  complete 
antithesis  to  each  other — as  if  there  were  two 
Deities,  whereas  these  persons  of  the  Trinity 
coexist  (together  with  the  Holy  Spirit)  in 
entire  solidarity. 

Sometimes  the  atonement  has  been  rep- 
resented as  exclusively  the  work  of  Christ  as 
apart  from  the  Father,  whereas  the  Scrip- 
tures teach  that  the  atonement  is  eternal  and 
cosmic  in  the  being  of  God,  although  it  was 
historically  finished  and  expressed  in  Christ 
late  in  time.  There  are  six  passages  of  New 
Testament  Scripture  which  emphatically 
affirm  this  :  that  the  atonement  itself  is  eter- 
nal in  God  and  the  universe,  although  his- 
torically manifested  in  the  work  of  Christ  on 
Calvary.  I  simply  give  the  references  with- 
out quoting :  Ephesians  3:5;  Colossians 
1  :  26  ;  2  Timothy  1  : 9,  10  ;  Titus  1:2; 
1  Peter  1  :  20  ;   Revelation  13  : 8. 

Sometimes  it  is  represented  that  the  pro- 
pitiation necessary  to  the  salvation  of  a  sin- 
ful world  was  a  propitiation  offered  by  Christ 
to  God,  as  if  Christ  was  a  third,  outside  party 


136  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

as  related  to  the  Deity,  whereas  the  propiti- 
ation was  a  self-propitiation  of  the  whole 
triune  God  in  Christ,  God  on  one  side  of  His 
being  providing  what  on  another  side  of  that 
same  being  He  exacted. 

Would  it  not  help  us  to  conceive  that  as 
related  to  the  sin  question  in  our  universe 
there  are  two  poles  of  moral  action  in  God's 
one  and  indivisible  being?  The  one  pole  is 
the  moral  aspect  of  His  spotless  holiness 
which  must  flame  with  indignation  against 
sin.  The  other  pole  is  the  divine  love  which 
morally  compels  Him  to  yearn  for  the  sal- 
vation of  the  same  sinner  His  holiness  con- 
demns. In  other  words,  our  human  sin 
created  a  potential  conflict  (or  antinomy)  as 
between  these  two  moral  poles  of  God's  be- 
ing. The  question  therefore  arose.  How  can 
God  exercise  these  two  morally  necessary 
qualities  in  His  divine  nature  consistently 
with  each  other  and  yet  so  as  to  save  the 
guilty  sinner  ?  The  answer  to  this  is  in  one 
word  :  In  purpose  even  before  creating  the 
world,  God  must  through  voluntary  suffer- 
ing have  put  Himself  under  the  whole  hu- 
man race  in  order  to  justify  such  creation. 
To  come  right  to  the  heart  of  the  problem  : 
this  is  what  God  did  *'  from  the  foundation 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  137 

of  the  world."  The  fundamental  reconcilia- 
tion or  atonement  therefore  was  cosmic  and 
timeless;  it  was  something  wrought  in  the 
being  of  Deity  Himself,  although  it  needed 
to  have  '*  in  the  fullness  of  time  "  such  a 
historical  denouement  and  manifestation  as 
occurred  in  the  Christ  of  Calvary's  cross. 

I  am  here  not  presenting  a  new  doctrine 
of  the  atonement  but  carrying  the  whole 
matter  back  into  the  nature  and  activity  of 
the  whole  Deity,  rather  than  leaving  the 
matter  as  an  event  isolated  in  time  and  be- 
longing to  the  second  person  of  the  Trinity 
only.  The  reconciliation  therefore  was  not 
something  devised  by  Christ  to  save  the  sinner 
from  God,  but  by  God  in  Christ  to  bring  the 
sinner  home  to  God. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  will  easily  be 
inferred  that  our  entire  universe  conceived 
as  a  product  of  the  self-manifestation  of  God 
was  and  is  from  the  beginning  evangelical. 
The  final  throne  of  this  universe  is  a  throne 
of  grace — not  a  throne  of  arbitrary  power — 
but  a  "  throne  of  grace,"  grace  being  the  syn- 
thesis of  the  two  moral  polarities  of  God's 
holiness  and  love  in  relation  to  the  sin 
question.  The  world  therefore  was  created 
through  Christ  Jesus  and  for  Him  ;  it  exists 


138         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

under  the  aegis  of  a  grace-system.  The  thing 
which  is  sovereign  in  God  is  not  any  one  of 
His  so-called  attributes  as  dominant  over  all 
the  others,  but  it  is  grace — that  composite  two- 
fold expression  of  God  towards  sinful  man. 
The  whole  movement  of  God  in  human  his- 
tory was  in  order  "  that  in  the  ages  to  come 
he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches  of  his 
grace  in  his  kindness  towards  us  through 
Christ  Jesus."  The  whole  meaning  of  the 
New  Testament  expression  of  the  significance 
of  Christ's  coming  and  work  was  to  set  forth 
what  was  constitutional  in  His  Father.  Deity 
was  always  an  atoning  Deity.  He  was  not 
made  so  through  the  mere  historical  work 
of  Christ ;  that  was  to  set  forth  what  was 
eternal  in  God's  nature.  As  St.  Paul  says  in 
his  epistle  to  Titus,  chapter  1,  verses  2  and  3, 
"  in  hope  of  eternal  life  which  God  who  can- 
not lie  promised  (and  if  so  provided),  before 
times  eternal,  but  m  his  own  seasons  manifested 
in  the  message  wherewith  I  was  intrusted." 
Creation  itself  had  from  the  beginning  re- 
demption in  reserve. 

It  is  an  old  medi£eval  error  that  God,  be- 
cause He  is  the  Infinitely  Blessed,  cannot 
suffer.  Of  course  there  is  a  paradox  here, 
but  the  holiest  and  most  loving  persons  in 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  139 

this  universe  suffer  most,  provided  they  are 
morally  sensitive  and  sympathetic,  and  God 
is  infinitely  sympathetic  with  His  creation. 
Every  being  that  comes  into  the  world,  there- 
fore, is  started  with  that  advantage.  Man  is 
from  the  start  a  potentially  redeemed  being. 
Redemption  was  in  God's  purpose  anterior  to 
creation.  Then  our  universe  is,  and  was  ever 
intended  to  be,  an  evangelical  universe,  a 
universe  indeed  which  sin  and  Satan  invaded 
but  could  not  wrest  from  God.  If  we  always 
had  this  in  view  all  our  Christian  work 
would  be  simplified.  It  would  be  a  matter 
of  mere  cooperation  with  God  in  a  work  al- 
ready potentially  accomplished.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  often  struggle  and  agonize  as  if  we 
had  to  make  God  willing  to  save  the  world. 
As  one  has  said,  we  seem  to  be  saying :  '*  Poor 
God !  as  if  He  had  nobody  to  help  Him  but 
me."  How  absolutely  contrary  is  the  real 
situation. 

Our  theme  leads  direct  to  the  determina- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  '*  the  cross  "  as  it  is 
used  in  Pauline  thought.  It  is  little  short 
of  a  tragedy  that  this  term  has  been  long 
confused  with  the  event  of  the  crucifixion 
at  the  hands  of  evil  men.  That  crucifixion 
was  human  sin  at  its  maximum,  the  deepest 


140         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

crime  of  the  ages.  The  Apostle  Peter  him- 
self on  the  day  of  Pentecost  charged  the  per- 
petrators of  that  event  with  having  *'  killed 
the  Prince  of  Life,"  ''  the  Lord  of  Glory." 
Those  murderers  were  really  guilty  of  dei- 
cide,  and  when  they  realized  it  they  cried 
out  in  despair :  "  Men  and  brethren,  what 
shall  we  do?"  They  might  and  ought  to 
have  perished  on  the  spot  but  that  the 
Apostle  went  on  to  say  that  something  in- 
visible to  them  had  occurred,  simultaneously 
with  the  crucifixion,  which  made  it  possible, 
on  condition  they  would  repent,  that  they 
might  be  saved  from  even  such  a  crime. 
That  invisible  something  was  that  God  from 
His  own  voluntariness  had  deliberately  given 
Himself  up  in  Christ  to  effect  an  atonement 
for  the  very  crucifiers.  And  that  atonement 
was  something  standing  morally  at  the  very 
antipodes  of  their  crime.  Dr.  Dale,  in  his 
great  book  on  the  atonement,  says  that  what 
occurred  in  the  divine  action  on  that  cross 
represents  "  the  sublimest  moment  in  the 
moral  history  of  God."  That  this  distinc- 
tion should  have  been  so  much  overlooked 
has  long  proved  one  of  the  most  serious 
handicaps  to  the  Christian  religion.  We 
have    to   thank   Rome   for   this   error.     Its 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  141 

whole  aim  has  been  to  impress  the  sensi- 
bilities with  the  pathos  and  tragedy  of  the 
crucifixion.  There  is  such  a  pathos  in  it. 
The  Ober-Ammergau  Passion  Play,  although 
so  impressive,  is  after  all  but  an  apotheosis 
of  the  tragedy.  Its  effect  on  the  conscience 
is  not  normal,  unless  the  observer  reads  the 
atonement  into  the  play.  While  the  atone- 
ment was  accompanied  by  tragic  phenomena 
which  God  can  overrule,  yet  the  tragedy  is 
not  the  atonement.  The  atonement  itself 
when  understood  is  always  adapted  to  move 
the  conscience  and  to  create  reaction  against 
sin. 

Among  all  those  who  stood  about  the  cross 
at  the  crucifixion — Josephus  says  about  200,- 
000  people — only  one  person  out  of  six  classes 
that  spoke  to  Christ  as  He  hung  upon  the 
tree  saw  the  atonement. 

There  were  six  classes  that  spoke.  The 
first  was  the  ribald  crowd  that  passing  by 
railed  on  Him,  wagging  their  heads  and  say- 
ing, "  Aha,  thou  that  destroyest  the  temple 
and  buildest  it  in  three  days,  save  thyself 
and  come  down  from  the  cross."  The  sec- 
ond class  was  made  up  of  the  chief  priests, 
the  scribes  and  elders  ;  they,  mocking  Him, 
said,  "  He  saved  others,  himself  he  cannot 


142         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

save.  If  he  be  the  king  of  Israel,  let  him 
now  come  down  from  the  cross  and  we  will 
believe  on  him.'^  The  third  class  were  the 
soldiers  who  also  mocked  Him  and  said,  '*  If 
thou  be  the  king  of  the  Jews  save  thyself." 
The  fourth  class  were  those  who,  when  He 
cried  out,  "  Eli,  Eli,  lama  sabachthani," 
thought  He  was  calling  for  Elias,  and  they 
said,  *'  Let  be,  let  us  see  whether  Elias  will 
come  to  save  him.''  The  fifth  class  was  the 
railing  malefactor,  who  said, ''  If  thou  be  the 
Christ,  save  thyself  and  us.'' 

Now  note  that  all  these  five  classes  united 
in  the  same  appeal  to  Jesus,  ^'  Save  thyself;  " 
that  is,  "  If  you  would  prove  yourself  to  be 
the  king  of  the  Jews  and  Saviour  of  the 
world."  But  glorious  to  relate,  there  was 
one  person  that  stood  over  against  all  these 
others  who  did  not  say,  "  Save  thyself." 
What  he  really  said  was  ''  Save  me,  for 
thou  art  in  reality  allowing  the  temple  of 
thy  body  to  be  destroyed  and  after  three 
days  thou  wilt  rebuild  it  in  resurrection 
power.  Thy  cross  is  not  finality,  for  a  whole 
kingdom  lies  away  beyond  it,  a  kingdom 
conditioned  on  thine  atoning  death."  And 
he  said  in  the  most  remarkable  prayer  con- 
tained   in  the  New  Testament,  "  Jesus  (or 


THE  COSMIC  CEOSS  143 

Lord),  remember  me  when  thou  comest  into 
thy  kingdom.'' 

He  alone  in  that  hour  knew,  as  no  apostle 
knew,  not  even  Mary,  the  Lord's  mother, 
that  the  crucifixion  was  not  finality,  that  the 
resurrection  lay  beyond  it,  the  very  corona- 
tion of  the  atoning  death.  He  alone  used 
the  saving  name  "  Jesus "  (R.  V.),  *'  re- 
member or  save  me."  And  the  adverb 
*'  when ''  which  he  used  was  proof  positive 
that,  as  illumined  from  the  other  world,  he 
looked  clear  over  the  horrid  tragedy  which 
evil  men  were  perpetrating,  and  saw  the  king- 
dom and  the  enthroned  King,  and  begged 
that  he  might  become  His  subject  when  this 
kingdom  was  established.  The  Lord  gave  His 
sanction  to  this  prayer  of  the  model  penitent 
in  His  emphatic  assertion,  ^'  Verily,  verily, — 
Amen,  Amen, — I  say  unto  thee  this  day  shalt 
thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise."  So  Christ 
took  along  with  Him  to  the  heavenly  world 
this  first  believer  in  the  atonement  after  He 
Himself  had  sent  away  his  spirit  to  the  Father. 
He  thus  set  His  seal  upon  the  faith  of  this 
ideal  penitent,  because  there  was  born  in  him 
the  first  clear-cut  conception  of  the  atonement 
that  conditioned  heaven. 

The  term  "  the  cross,"  as  characteristically 


IM         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

used  by  Paul,  carries  with  it  meanings  that 
need  to  be  clearly  discerned.  Meanings 
which  were  slowly  acquired  by  the  early 
Church.  When  Christ  died  upon  the  cross 
the  disciples  thought  that  was  the  end ;  His 
career  was  finished,  and  they  despaired  of 
any  posthumous  power  from  it  except  as  a 
tragic  memory.  The  very  women  whose  in- 
tuition was  so  keen  went  to  the  sepulcher 
after  His  burial  with  anointing  spices  in  the 
form  of  embalmment.  None  of  the  apostles 
believed  in  the  resurrection  when  it  occurred 
until  they  were  forced  to  it  by  repeated  ap- 
pearances and  overwhelming  proofs.  They 
then  began  to  see  that  the  death  of  Christ 
was  an  event  which  issued  in  resurrection. 
It  was  therefore  an  entirely  unique  form  of 
dying.  It  was  voluntary  dying  and  a  vol- 
untary living  again.  The  central  text  on 
the  atonement  as  Christ  Himself  set  it  forth 
is  in  John  10 :  17,  18 :  -'Therefore  doth  the 
Father  love  me  because  I  lay  down  my  life 
that  I  might  take  it  again;  no  man  taketh 
my  life  from  me  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself. 
I  have  the  power  (or  right)  to  lay  it  down 
and  I  have  the  power  (or  right)  to  take  it 
again :  this  commandment  have  I  received 
from   my  Father."     That  was   the   atoning 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  145 

death — a  composite  thing — death,  plus  the 
resurrection.  The  voluntariness  in  that 
death  and  resurrection  making  it  a  move- 
ment wholly  divine  despite  the  crucifiers  ; 
this  was  the  atoning  death.  It  was  of  such 
a  death  as  this  that  the  illumined  Peter  in 
his  great  sermon  at  Pentecost  said  in  a  burst 
of  triumphant  realization,  ''  It  was  not  pos- 
sible that  he — the  sinless  Christ,  the  Mes- 
siah— should  be  holden  of  death."  In  other 
words,  the  phrase,  **  the  death  of  Christ,'^ 
as  the  Church  after  Pentecost  became  en- 
lightened used  it,  took  on  an  entirely  changed 
meaning.  It  was  always  looked  at  in  the 
light  of  the  resurrection.  It  was  therefore 
not  something  merely  endured  as  a  tragic 
calamity,  but  it  was  a  moral  and  spiritual 
achievement — an  accomplishment — as  was  im- 
plied in  the  conversation  between  Moses  and 
Elias  and  Jesus  on  the  Mount  of  Transfig- 
uration. How  reads  the  account  ?  '*  There 
appeared  Moses  and  Elias  and  spake  with 
Jesus  concerning  " — not  His  death — but  His 
"  Exodus  ''  (the  Greek  word),  a  death  that 
while  it  looked  like  mortal  dying,  ended 
rather  in  a  victorious  crossing,  as  of  the  Red 
Sea.  Accordingly  it  was  an  ''  exodus  which 
he  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem." 


146         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

And  so  in  the  ripe  New  Testament  thought, 
the  death  of  Christ  was  always  seen  to  be 
something  which  eventuated  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  Lord,  and  the  resurrection  was 
always  regarded  as  an  event  which  presup- 
posed an  atoning  death,  and  not  merely  mor- 
tal dying.  The  cross  of  Christ,  therefore,  was 
a  term  which  stood  for  the  voluntary  self- 
giving  of  Christ  in  death  as  seen  in  the  light 
of  the  resurrection  ;  and  so  the  terms  ''  death  " 
and  *'  cross  "  in  important  connections  came 
to  be  used  ironically.  The  cross  thus  was 
not  the  end  of  Christ's  career,  but  in  an  im- 
portant sense  the  beginning  of  it.  ^' And  I, 
if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth  " — literally, 
If  I  be  uplifted  out  of  the  earth  onto  resurrec- 
tion ground — "  will  draw  all  unto  myself — 
that  is,  I  will  become  the  new  moral  magnet, 
the  higher  nucleating  center  of  the  new  crea- 
tion of  mankind,  ^'  the  first-fruits  of  them 
that  slept,"  "  the  first  begotten  from  the 
dead."  Such  was  the  atoning  death — the 
death  implied  in  the  cross  of  Christ. 

The  New  Testament  term  ''  cross,"  with  its 
newly  acquired  meaning  in  the  generation 
following  the  ascension  of  our  Lord,  was  used 
therefore  as  a  watchword  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment   Church.      It    by   no   means   implied 


THE  COSMIC  CEOSS  147 

any  such  thought  as  that  the  Roman  crime 
which  had  been  perpetrated  on  Jesus  was  for 
one  moment  to  be  construed  as  the  moral 
basis  for  man's  forgiveness  and  new  creation 
— a  thought  wholly  repugnant  to  the  moral 
sense  of  mankind.  But  if  God  was  to  for- 
give, He  must  do  it  on  such  conditions  as 
would  not  legitimize  or  license  any  continu- 
ance in  sin.  It  would  have  been  a  scandal 
in  the  moral  universe  before  all  worlds  if 
God  had  treated  lightly  the  matter  of  sin 
itself  or  any  movement  on  His  part  to  release 
the  sinner  too  easily  from  the  consequences 
of  his  sin.  Therefore  moral  cost  must  be  en- 
dured somewhere. 

Years  ago,  in  a  notable  school  on  Beacon 
Street  in  Boston,  the  head  master,  Dr.  A. 
Bronson  Alcott,  although  Unitarian  in  faith, 
promulgated  the  principle  that  for  certain 
transgressions  in  the  school  the  master  rather 
than  the  culprit  should  receive  the  penal 
feruling.  The  sagacious  Alcott  thought  it 
important  that  fractious  pupils  should  be 
brought  to  see  that  "  wrong-doing  and  pain 
belong  together."  When  after  the  first  trans- 
gression in  the  school  the  culprit  pupil  was 
brought  forward  and  commanded  to  strike 
with  the  ferule  the  outstretched  hand  of  the 


148         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

venerable  Alcott,  one  blow  sufficed,  for  the 
whole  school  broke  down  together  before  the 
benevolent-minded  master.  Besides,  they  saw 
judgment  becoming  grace  in  the  spectacle 
before  them. 

In  Bible  thought,  it  was  God  Himself  who 
took  all  the  cost  of  man^s  salvation  upon 
Himself  and  so  by  virtue  of  the  realization 
of  that  fact  man  was  so  made  to  feel  the  moral 
bearing  of  his  transgression  upon  God,  His 
supreme  moral  authority,  that  that  realiza- 
tion breaks  man's  heart  with  penitence  and 
mortgages  his  soul  and  life  to  a  new  moral 
response  to  God. 

Such  a  result  the  cross  of  Christ,  properly 
understood,  is  adapted  to  secure  ;  and  it  does 
it  because  that  cross  expresses  some  form  of 
holy  yet  loving  divine  action,  and  not  the 
mere  crime  of  evil  men,  as  some  have  falsely 
supposed. 

In  a  college  visited  last  year,  I  was  appealed 
to  by  the  president  and  faculty  to  bring  out 
the  real  dynamic  contained  in  Christianity 
that  might  prove  moving  to  the  student  body 
for  higher  Christian  living.  It  was  repre- 
sented to  me  that  certain  low  standards,  such 
as  commonly  beset  student  bodies,  prevail  ; 
I  need  not  particularize  respecting  these  stu- 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  149 

dent  shortcomings,  for  they  were  such  as  beset 
more  or  less  most  companies  of  undergradu- 
ates in  present  day  colleges.  In  my  first  lec- 
ture next  morning  I  began  by  putting  three 
questions  to  my  student  audience,  not  of 
course  to  be  answered  to  me  but  to  their  own 
consciences  :  (1)  "  Were  there  some  or  many 
of  this  body  who  were  sensible  of  a  distinct 
lapse  in  spiritual  living  since  the  day  of  their 
conversion  ?  '^  (2)  ''  Were  there  those  who 
recognized  and  sometimes  acknowledged  that 
they  were  habitually  dominated  by  some  in- 
ward principle  of  evil  ?  "  (3)  "  Were  there 
some  or  many,  even  of  intending  ministers, 
who  were  conscious  of  a  great  lack  of  real 
power  to  impress  their  fellows  with  their  need 
of  an  experience  of  Christ  ?  "  In  other  words, 
had  they  ceased  to  become  soul-winners  ?  In 
case  these  phenomena  characterize  any  of  us 
so  that  the  standard  of  Christian  living  is  let 
down,  it  is  because  we  have  a  religion  with- 
out dynamic.  It  fails  at  points  where  power 
is  most  needed.  I  then  proceeded  to  point 
out  that  the  central  energy  of  the  Christian 
religion  is  in  Christ*s  cross  truly  understood 
and  applied. 

At  one  stage  in  his  spiritual  realization, 
the  Apostle  Paul  came  to  the  point  where  he 


150         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

sensed  the  need  of  this  dynamic.  In  the 
seventh  of  Romans,  in  which  he  discusses 
the  several  forms  of  law  that  concerned  him 
as  a  moral  being,  he  states  that  he  had  dis- 
covered a  law  of  sin  and  death — a  sort  of 
downward  drag — working  in  his  '*  members," 
so  that  he  felt  like  a  living  man  bound  to  a 
corpse,  and  he  cried  oat,  "  Oh,  wretched  man 
that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this  death  ? "  For  a  moment  he 
seems  in  despair,  and  then  as  he  discovers  a 
higher  law  which  overcomes  this  downward 
pall,  namely,  *'  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus,"  he  triumphantly  exclaims,  "  I 
thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 
This  helps  us  more  clearly  to  see  into  the 
depths  of  Paul's  experience  when  he  says  in 
Galatians,  "  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory 
save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
By  this  cross  two  things  had  been  secured  to 
him  :  first,  the  world  had  been  crucified 
unto  him  and  he  had  been  crucified  unto 
the  world.  Two  dynamic  forces  had  laid 
hold  of  him.  We  know  what  Paul  was  be- 
fore: *'  breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaugh- 
ter "  against  Christ  and  His  followers,  hal- 
ing them  everywhere  and  casting  them  into 
prison.     He  even  held  the  garments  of  the 


THE  COSMIC  CKOSS  151 

mob  that  stoned  Stephen,  Christ's  first  mar- 
tyr. But  when  Paul  awoke  to  realize  that 
it  was  a  world-philosophy,  a  selfish,  satanic 
philosophy  which  moved  the  rejectors  of 
Christ  to  drive  Him  off  the  earth  by  a 
felon's  death,  he  was  moved  to  break  with 
that  philosophy  forever  ;  he  would  have  no 
more  to  do  with  it.  That  was  the  first  opera- 
tion of  the  moral  dynamic  which  belongs  to 
the  cross  which  so  wrought  to  reconstruct 
Paul. 

The  second  element  was  this  :  the  moment 
Paul  repudiated  this  world-philosophy  and 
all  its  claims  upon  him,  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
God  entered  into  the  moral  vacuum  thus 
formed  in  his  soul,  and  created  the  Christ 
Himself  within  him,  so  that  Paul,  subject- 
ively speaking,  became  crucified  to  the 
world.  There  was  thus  a  double  crucifixion 
in  the  experience  of  this  persecutor  of  Tarsus. 
He  was  fundamentally  made  new.  He  was 
dead  to  the  old  and  alive  to  the  new.  He 
would  therefore  no  longer  ''  tread  under  foot 
the  only  begotten  Son  of  God."  He  would 
not  *'  count  the  blood  of  the  covenant  where- 
with Christ  was  set  apart  an  unholy  thing  " 
— even  a  common  thing.  He  repudiated 
forever  his  sacrilegious  type  of  living  and  he 


152         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

became  set  apart  unto  Christ  and  His  service 
in  one  final  act.  Such  was  the  dynamic 
Paul  found  in  the  cross. 

I  submit  that  if  the  sinful  human  race 
was  to  be  forgiven  and  renewed  in  character, 
it  was  necessary  that  some  tremendous  and 
vital  dynamic  should  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  that  race  "  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins." 
There  were  two  elements  needing  to  be  em- 
braced in  that  dynamic.  If  God  was  to  for- 
give He  must  in  the  first  place  do  it  on  such 
conditions  as  would  not  legitimize  or  license 
continuance  in  sin.  It  w^ould  have  been  a 
scandal  in  the  moral  universe  in  all  worlds 
if  God  had  treated  lightly  the  matter  of  sin 
itself,  or  in  a  movement  on  His  part  to  re- 
lease the  sinner  too  easily  from  the  conse- 
quences of  his  sin,  without  moral  cost  en- 
dured somewhere.  In  Bible  thought  it  was 
God  Himself  who  took  all  this  cost  upon 
Himself  and  so  by  virtue  of  the  realization 
of  that  fact  man  was  so  made  to  feel  the 
moral  bearing  of  his  transgression  upon  God, 
His  supreme  moral  Authority,  that  that 
realization  was  adapted  to  commit  his  soul 
and  life  to  a  new  moral  response  to  God  and 
service  to  Him. 

The  second  element  needed  to  enable  God 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  153 

wisely  and  righteously  to  forgive  is  this  : 
He  must  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  a 
moral  reaction  in  the  soul  against  sin — some 
form  of  absolute  revolt  from  his  previous 
habit  and  life  tendencies.  This  the  cross  of 
Christ,  properly  understood,  is  adapted  to 
secure.  But  if  so,  that  cross  must  express 
some  form  of  a  holy,  divine  action,  not  the 
mere  crime  of  evil  men,  as  some  have  falsely 
supposed.  But  the  atoning  death  on  the 
part  of  God  in  Christ  must  be  a  death 
adapted  to  awaken  the  human  conscience  as 
it  was  never  before  awakened  and  to  purge 
it  from  its  old  legal  and  ''  dead  works,"  so 
that  the  conscience  itself  would  become  re- 
newed and  refounded  in  the  perception  of 
God  as  an  eternally  redeeming  Deity.  Here 
is  a  matter  rarely  half  appreciated. 

The  natural  conscience  of  man  renewed  is 
grounded  in  the  perception  of  God  as  a 
Creator,  and  at  most  as  a  mere  preserver,  but 
later  when  the  soul  comes  to  the  supreme 
crisis  of  its  life  and  begins  to  see  God  in  a 
new  light ;  that  far  back  of  and  anterior  to 
His  creation  God  is  also  a  redeeming  God, 
of  whom  Christ  in  history  is  but  the  mani- 
festation, the  conscience — the  very  seat  of 
moral  being — by  the  aid  of  the  divine  Spirit 


164         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

becomes  refounded  or  recreated  ;  and  so  it 
comes  about  that  the  conscience  which  before 
merely  accused  and  condemned  the  violator 
of  God's  law  now  excuses  the  penitent  sinner, 
so  that  he  has  hope  at  length  of  standing 
unabashed  before  the  final  judgment  throne, 
a  throne  not  of  arbitrary  power,  but  a 
"  throne  of  grace,"  of  ''  redeeming  love,"  the 
very  ''judgment  seat  of  Christ." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  the 
revered  President  Garfield  fell  a  victim  to 
the  assassin's  bullet,  the  authorities  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railway  felt  moved  to  mark 
the  spot  in  the  waiting-room  of  their  station 
at  Washington  in  some  significant  way  ;  they 
removed  from  the  floor  a  piece  of  tile  which 
had  been  stained  with  the  martyred  Presi- 
dent's blood  and  inserted  in  place  thereof  a 
bright  brass  star,  and  on  the  wall  in  the 
room  opposite  and  above  it,  placed  a  marble 
tablet  describing  the  significance  of  the  star. 
Of  course,  the  star  was  a  symbol  of  the  pre- 
cious life  blood  of  the  worthy  President. 
But  that  symbol  had  a  sanctity  that  know- 
ing and  appreciative  men  always  respected. 
No  loyal  American  citizen  who  appreciated 
its  import  would  ever  tread  upon  that  star. 
The  act  would  have  been  sacrilegious.     The 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  155 

coloured  people  used  to  gather  at  times  about 
that  star  until  the  room  became  impassable 
to  travellers,  and  so  the  star  was  removed. 
So  morbid  was  the  veneration  for  the  symbol. 

Since  the  event  of  the  coming  of  God's 
only  begotten  Son  into  this  world  and  volun- 
tary laying  down  His  life  for  it,  the  whole 
earth,  everything  in  it  and  all  persons  that 
walk  upon  it,  have  been  in  the  divine  pur- 
pose redeemed  unto  God.  They  are  doubly 
God's  possession  ;  not  only  by  rights  of  crea- 
tion but  especially  by  rights  of  redemption. 
Men  are  not  their  own. 

Would  it  be  too  much  for  us  to  imagine 
that  an  event  of  so  august  significance  would 
only  be  truly  symbolized  if  we  imagined 
every  square  foot  of  earth  to  be  set  with  a 
star  in  memory  of  the  redeeming  act,  so  that 
every  human  being  on  earth  is  compelled  to 
meet  that  issue  ?  He  is  placed  upon  earth 
thus  set  with  stars.  He  can  neither  move 
forward  nor  backward,  to  the  right  or  left, 
without  treading  on  stars. 

At  what  enormous  advantage  this  places 
every  one  of  us  for  purposes  of  redeemed 
living.  If  we  perish  now  we  do  so  without 
excuse,  for  God  has  preempted  all  the  ground 
on  which   we  stand,  and  ourselves  also,  by 


156         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

His  own  act  through  the  work  of  His  cross 
to  be  His  forever.  Thus  placed,  we  are  shut 
up  to  two  alternatives  of  free  choice.  We  can 
either  choose  to  think  lightly  of  this  stand- 
ing ground  thus  set  with  redemptive  em- 
blems ;  we  can  tramp  about  profanely, 
ungratefully,  irreverently,  upon  these  stars. 
But  what  sacrilege  were  that — the  very  worst 
sacrilege.  What  man  in  his  senses  who  has 
an  ounce  of  reverence  left  in  his  nature 
would  knowingly  do  this?  "Father,  for- 
give them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.'' 
But  thank  God  I  there  is  another  alter- 
native for  each  and  every  one  of  us.  We 
may  say  to  ourselves,  ''  Inasmuch  as  I  am 
even  without  my  own  desire  thus  placed  on 
redemption  ground,  I  can  claim  it  with  a 
grateful  heart,  and  I  will  so  claim  it ;  so  I 
choose  to  respond  to  the  intent  and  meaning 
of  the  divine  grace  ;  and  if  I  must  walk  the 
earth  thus  set  with  stars  I  will  do  so  rever- 
ently, gratefully,  believingly,  loyally,  rejoic- 
ing in  the  divine  and  saving  standing  ground 
thus  accorded  me."  That  is  faith,  the  very 
opposite  of  the  sacrilegious  attitude  and  life. 
Hence  it  is  that  the  cross  of  Christ  properly 
understood  becomes  the  very  touchstone  of 
character ;  and  our  attitude  towards  it  will 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  157 

determine  our  final  destiny  in  the  great 
day. 

We  forget  that  the  term  "  the  cross,"  as  it 
appears  in  the  New  Testament,  was  never 
written  by  an  inspired  writer  until  at  least 
an  entire  generation  had  elapsed  after  Christ 
was  crucified.  Under  the  Spirit  of  God  it 
had  come  therefore  to  take  on  a  new  mean- 
ing far  below  the  surface,  a  meaning  which 
not  one  of  those  on  Mount  Calvary — not 
even  the  apostles — saw  in  the  tragic  hour 
when  the  heavens  became  darkened  and  the 
Christ  was  dismissing  His  Spirit. 

It  is  this  meaning  of  the  cross,  as  watch- 
word, that  the  present  day  Church  needs  to 
grasp  and  preach  as  it  never  has  preached, 
and  must  preach  if  we  are  to  see  a  new 
reformation  profounder  than  that  of  Martin 
Luther.  Men  on  every  hand  are  saying  in 
the  light  of  the  false  implications  of  our 
emphasis  on  the  crucifixion  event,  ''  I  don't 
like  your  God.  He  is  an  unethical  God, 
an  immoral  God.  You  represent  Him  first 
of  all  as  an  impassible  being,  a  God  cold, 
immobile,  far  distant,  onlooking  being,  and 
by  a  freezing  edict  making  a  victim  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  innocent,  as  if  He  were  a  third 
outside  party  entirely  extraneous  to  Himself." 


158         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

The  real  truth  rather  is  that  God  tho  all 
loving,  the  infinitely  compassionate,  of  whom 
Christ  is  but  His  self-expression  or  revela- 
tion, became  His  own  victim.  It  is  God 
Himself  the  whole  Deity  that  is  vicarious, 
that  is  suffering,  that  is  redeeming.  This 
atonement  is  at  the  very  heart  of  the  uni- 
verse. It  was  from  before  the  creation  of 
the  world  ;  the  only  Deity  this  world  ever 
had  is  ever  an  atoning  Deity.  In  the  depths 
of  His  triune  being  there  is  a  '*  Lamb 
slain  " — in  the  infinite  conscience  of  the 
Deity  itself — "  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  He  is  the  basis  of  everything  and 
of  all  movements  in  the  created  universe. 
The  supreme  court  of  this  universe  is  itself 
vicarious  and  atoning.  If  it  was  concretely, 
visually  and  historically  manifested  in  Christ 
we  should  be  grateful  for  it,  but  there  was  a 
cross  set  up  in  the  universe  of  God  from  the 
very  foundation  of  things  long  before  it  be- 
came visual  on  Calvary's  mount. 

Then,  men  also  say :  "  You  evangelicals 
also  preach  a  tri-theism.  You  even  also 
seem  to  represent  that  God  and  Christ  are 
two  different  kinds  of  Deity.  You  seem  to 
have  one  God  to  damn  the  world  and  another 
one  to  save  it  from  the  God  who  damns  it.'* 


THE  COSMIC  CROSS  159 

Nay,  nay,  it  is  not  one  distinct,  outside  per- 
son that  saves  the  world  from  another  per- 
son ;  it  is  the  same  triane  God  who  dooms 
us  that  also  saves  us  ;  He  puts  Himself  under 
us  to  save  and  bring  us  home  to  God.  It 
is  the  whole  God  in  Christ  in  both  trans- 
actions. And  it  is  the  synthesis  of  these  two 
measureless  things,  holiness  in  God  and  also 
His  love,  which  constitutes  that  saving  Grace 
which  we  have  so  imperfectly  tried  to  preach. 

Our  whole  universe  is  evangelical.  It 
would  never  have  existed  except  on  that 
basis.  The  atonement,  therefore,  like  its 
Christ,  is  cosmic,  eternal  and  preexistent — 
prevenient,  if  you  please. 

The  atonement  is  no  afterthought,  no  piece 
of  patchwork,  no  fragmentary  thing,  but  in- 
tegral to  the  universe.  This  does  not  mean 
universalism,  not  even  restorationalism,  but 
it  lays  the  universal  groundwork  for  the 
whole  race.  The  whole  universe  is  poten- 
tially redeemed,  even  the  heaven  and  the 
earth,  but  so  far  as  man  is  concerned  every- 
thing turns  in  destiny  for  him,  on  whether 
or  not  he  penitently  and  believingly  responds 
to  that  grace  or  whether  he  repudiates  it, 
tramples  it  underfoot  and  proudly  says,  ''  I 
will  have  none  of  it.'^ 


VIII 

THE  XJLTIMACY  OF  THE  MISSIONAEY 
EHTERPEISE 

THERE  are  many  great  things  in  the 
world.  There  is  one  that  is  great- 
est, and  that  is  what  we  call  the 
Missionary  Enterprise.  The  race  of  man 
was  created  in  order  to  be  new-created  or 
redeemed.  Oar  universe  is  a  process  of  the 
self-manifestation  of  God  to  creatures  made 
in  His  image  and  who,  stage  by  stage  in 
human  history,  become  increasingly  able  to 
take  it  in.  By  the  ''  Missionary  Enterprise  " 
is  meant  the  race  on  its  way  to  new-creation. 
In  other  words,  missions  are  the  sfelf-exten- 
sion  of  the  Church  through  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  the  whole  earth.  This  aim  is  to  be  su- 
preme above  all  aims ;  it  is  also  timeless, 
embracing  all  the  dispensations. 

In  a  time  like  this,  however,  when  inter- 
national relationships  are  so  broken  up  and 
the  very  foundations  of  international  law  are 
questioned,  we  are  compelled  to  think  care- 

160 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     161 

fully  and  to  use  discriminating  terms.  For 
myself  whatever  goes  and  however  the  proc- 
esses change,  I  believe  the  aims  and  ends  of 
missions  will  remain. 

The  word  ''  end  "  is  used  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament in  a  variety  of  senses.  Sometimes  it 
means  a  conclusion  of  a  period  or  epoch 
which  implies  the  end  of  an  old  and  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  period,  not  necessarily  ''  the 
end  of  the  world."  Several  dififerent  uses  of 
this  word  may  be  found  in  Matthew  24. 
The  word,  however,  which  has  long  com- 
manded chief  attention  on  my  part,  is  a  word 
compounded  of  a  noun  and  a  preposition 
(^(Tuvrehta)  meaning  consummation.  Christ  in 
this  chapter  is  not  primarily  affording  us  a 
program  that  can  be  humanly  traced.  He 
is  rather  discoursing  on  the  nature  or  genius 
of  the  kingdom.  The  whole  discourse  starts 
with  the  compound  word  I  have  mentioned. 

The  disciples  had  inquired,  ''  Lord,  when 
shall  these  (last)  things  be  ?  and  what  shall 
be  the  sign  of  thy  coming  and  the  consum- 
mation of  the  age  ?  "  Christ  then  takes  up 
the  question  and  indicates  the  various  forms 
in  which  His  kingdom  will  shape  up  in  its 
divine  progress. 

In  the  forty-ninth  chapter  of  the  prophecy 


162         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

of  Isaiah  there  is  a  remarkable  prophetic 
unfolding  of  the  program  of  missions  as  a 
whole,  embracing  both  Israel  and  the  entire 
Gentile  world.  In  a  pessimistic  mood  the 
prophet  had  been  saying  in  view  of  the  re- 
peated apostasies  of  Israel,  *'  I  have  laboured 
in  vain,  I  have  spent  my  strength  for  nought 
and  in  vain,"  but  here  he  checks  himself 
with  a  new  hope,  for  he  has  a  new  hope, 
"  Though  Israel  be  not  gathered,  yet  shall  I 
be  glorious  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  ; "  and 
the  prophet  hears  God  further  saying  (v.  6), 
*'  It  is  too  light  a  thing  that  thou  shouldst 
be  my  servant  to  raise  up  the  tribes  of  Jacob 
and  to  restore  the  preserved  of  Israel.  I 
will  also  give  thee  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles 
that  thou  mayest  be  my  salvation  unto  the 
ends  of  the  earth."  There  is  no  more  com- 
prehensive passage  in  the  Bible  respecting 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  Christian  missions, 
no  matter  how  many  apparent  interruptions 
may  occur. 

I  now  wish  to  give  some  adequate  answer 
to  the  question  how  we  may  be  sure  amid 
the  many  changes  of  the  ages  that  this  great 
goal  will  be  realized.  There  is  often  some- 
thing gained  by  looking  backward  and  trac- 
ing past  history ;  such  a  survey  predisposes 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     163 

us  to  a  new  confidence  in  the  history  yet  to 
be  made. 

I  call  attention  then  to  several  distinct 
stages  in  the  past  unfoldings  of  Christian 
work  in  the  world  since  Christ  came  which 
will  throw  light  on  the  future. 

I  mention  first  the  fact  that  Christ's  own 
personal  ministry  was  itself  but  preliminary 
to  something  vastly  larger.  He  said  plainly 
to  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman  who  cried 
after  Him,  "  I  am  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel."  Of  course  He 
was,  broadly  speaking,  sent  unto  the  world 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  whole  of  the  world, 
but  not  in  His  own  immediate  time  and  by 
a  ministration  that  was  to  extend  itself 
through  generations  that  would  follow  Him, 
but  His  program  admitted  of  that  formal 
limitation. 

There  was  one  phenomenal  event,  shortly 
before  Jesus  came  to  His  cross,  that  estab- 
lishes this.  The  event  in  which  certain 
Greeks  or  precursors  of  the  Gentile  world 
came  up  to  one  of  the  feasts  at  Jerusalem 
desiring  to  see  Jesus.  But  Jesus  entirely 
denied  Himself  to  these  Greek  inquirers. 
Christ's  program  required  it.  A  Christ  in 
the  flesh,  king  of  the   Jews,  could   be  no 


164         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

proper  object  of  faith  to  the  Gentiles  for  the 
reason  that  at  a  later  stage  the  Gentiles  might 
have  Him  as  their  risen  Christ  and  Lord  in 
the  Spirit  in  a  dynamic  form,  which  the  Jews 
as  a  whole  failed  to  receive.  When  there- 
fore this  approach  of  the  Greeks,  mediated 
through  Philip  and  Andrew,  was  made, 
Christ  replied,  ^'  The  hour  is  come  that  the 
Son  of  man  should  be  glorified.  Except  a 
grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die 
it  abideth  alone,  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit."     ^'  I  must  go  to  the  cross.'' 

What  could  this  language  have  meant? 
Surely  not  that  Christ  was  repellent  of  the 
Gentile  world,  for  the  whole  of  which  He 
was  to  lay  down  His  life.  Nay,  but  the 
atonement  itself  must  first  dispensationally 
be  completed  before  the  Gospel  itself  in  its 
outward  application  could  become  Catholi- 
cized, or  made  universal  to  the  race. 

What  I  beg  you  here  particularly  to  note 
is  that  a  complete  formal  break  must  be 
made  in  the  method  of  Christ's  application  of 
His  Gospel  to  the  world.  But  the  break  was 
in  form  only  and  not  in  dynamic.  The 
verses  that  follow  in  John  12  :  25-32  indicate 
that  the  ultimate  purpose  is  that  the 
Gospel  should  be  carried  to  the  world  through 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     165 

Christ's  successors  according  to  the  purpose 
of  God  the  Father  as  well  as  Christ  the  Son, 
for  when  Christ  a  few  moments  later  ad- 
dressed the  Father  in  the  words,  ''  Father 
glorify  thy  name,"  indicating  Christ's  will- 
ingness to  welcome  even  Calvary,  then  came 
a  voice  from  heaven  saying,  **  I  have  both 
glorified  it  (in  you)  and  will  glorify  it  again  " 
(or  repeatedly,  in  your  disciples,  who  after 
your  resurrection  will  extend  your  grace  to 
all  mankind)  and  ''  this  voice,"  Christ  dis- 
tinctly said,  ''  came  not  because  of  me  but  for 
your  sakes  " — My  disciples'  sakes,  in  whom 
I  will  extend  Myself  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
There  was  still  another  period  distinctly 
marked  off  from  that  of  Christ's  personal 
ministry  and  that  great  era  of  world  evan- 
gelization which  followed ;  that  was  the 
period  of  the  forty  days  between  Christ's 
resurrection  and  His  final  ascension.  It  was 
important  that  the  early  Church  as  well  as 
the  Church  of  all  time  should  be  assured  of 
the  resurrection.  Without  the  resurrection 
there  would  have  been  no  atonement  suffi- 
cient to  save  anybody.  And  many  other 
elements  of  power  would  have  been  lacking 
essential  to  the  energy  of  a  world  movement. 
If  Christ  had  not  convinced  the  Church  that 


166  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

He  was  alive  again  He  would  have  won  no 
followers  after  Calvary.  He  would  have 
failed  to  convince  the  Church  that  He  was 
God  in  the  flesh.  The  sinlessness  of  His 
career  would  have  been  shown  to  have  taken 
no  effect  on  either  mind  or  matter  in  so  far 
as  sin  had  blighted  and  cursed  both,  for 
Christ's  resurrection  was  the  evidence  of  a 
positive  achievement  wrought  by  a  sinless 
atoning  and  divine  human  agent  over  the 
whole  empire  of  sin.  Christ's  resurrection, 
therefore,  although  it  resulted  in  an  empty 
grave,  was  far  more  than  the  revival  of  a 
corpse.  It  was  an  absolute  triumph  over  sin. 
Christ's  death  and  resurrection  was  a  form 
of  death  entirely  unique.  "  It  was  not  pos- 
sible," said  the  Apostle  Peter  in  his  great 
sermon  at  Pentecost,  "  that  he  should  be 
holden  of  death.^'  His  death  plus  His  resur- 
rection was  a  death  that  potentially  destroyed 
death  because  it  was  the  death-blow  to  sin 
for  the  whole  believing  human  race.  Christ 
was  "  the  first-begotten  from  the  dead,"  ''  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  slept,"  the  one  "  that 
liveth  and  was  dead  and  behold  he  is  alive 
forevermore  and  has  the  keys  of  death  and 
of  Hades." 

Now  the  early  Church  had  to  be  assured 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPEISE     167 

of  this.  They  were  at  first  altogether  averse 
to  believing  it  and  the  evidence  was  needed 
to  be  enforced  upon  them.  This  evidence 
was  afforded  in  ten  historic  appearances  of 
the  most  signal  sort.  In  one  case  to  about 
five  hundred  brethren  at  once  and  finally  to 
Saul  on  the  way  to  Damascus  in  a  vision  so 
overwhelming  that  it  spiritually  recon- 
structed him  and  led  to  the  creation  of  the 
civilization  of  all  western  Christendom. 

Moreover,  it  would  seem  that  in  order  that 
the  early  Church  might  be  prepared  for  its 
subsequent  task  of  evangelizing  the  world,  it 
needed  to  discover  its  Christ  as  hovering 
through  the  whole  period  of  the  forty  days 
between  two  worlds,  now  appearing  and  then 
disappearing  as  evidence  to  the  Church  that 
He  was  equally  related  to  the  two  worlds 
and  the  Lord  of  them. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  most  striking 
fact  connected  with  this  whole  period,  viz., 
that  "  the  great  commission,"  as  we  properly 
call  it,  to  evangelize  the  world,  was  not 
uttered  until  near  the  end  of  this  period. 
Prior  to  this,  Christ  had  taught  all  sorts  of 
duties :  How  to  pray,  how  to  give  alms,  the 
beatitudes,  all  the  parables,  the  entire  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  and  much  besides,   but  this 


168  THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

single,  solitary  command  to  missionize  the 
Gentile  world  He  held  in  reserve.  It  was 
the  utterance,  let  us  never  forget,  of  the  risen 
Lord  Jesus.  He  was  Himself  not  officially 
qualified  as  the  New  Head  of  the  Race  until 
now  ;  the  dispensational  hour  had  not  arrived 
until  now ;  the  apostles  themselves  could 
not  have  received  the  commission  until  the 
hour  was  ripe.  And  they  would  have  been 
without  courage  to  undertake  it ;  but  now, 
when  the  climacteric  hour  of  our  Lord's 
probation  as  the  second  Adam  was  reached  ; 
now  that  the  atonement  was  achieved  and 
on  the  hill  in  Galilee — "  Galilee  of  the  Gen- 
tiles *' — He  could  fitly  speak  the  imperial 
command,  *'  All  power  hath  been  given  unto 
me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  Go  ye  therefore 
and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you ;  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  age.'^ 

Because  of  the  setting  of  this  great  com- 
mission and  as  uttered  by  the  risen  Lord, 
just  when  and  where  it  was,  I  have  been 
wont  to  call  this  business  of  world  missions 
*'  the  resurrection  errand  of  the  Church,^* 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     169 

Then  came  Pentecost — the  day  of  days, 
the  day  when  the  Church  was  born.  What 
a  day  that  was  I  The  day  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God,  the  third  person  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  came  to  His  own,  so  far  as  man  was 
concerned  ;  the  day  when  the  holy  breath  of 
the  risen  Lord  came  like  a  mighty  rushing 
wind  and  dispelled  the  night.  The  day 
when  the  tongues  of  fire  came  and,  distrib- 
uting themselves,  sat,  a  complete  tongue 
upon  the  head  of  each  person  of  the  elect 
number  of  over  one  hundred  and  twenty 
within  the  upper  room  ;  the  day  when  all  the 
jangled  confusions  passed  into  one  clear  har- 
mony and  ''  All  were  with  one  accord  in  one 
place  "  ;  the  day  when  the  spokesman  of  the 
twelve,  the  Apostle  Peter,  on  one  occasion  at 
least,  spoke  forth  "  the  words  of  truth  and 
soberness,"  emboldened  as  never  before,  and 
in  tongues  understood  by  all,  illumining  the 
prophets  whom  he  quoted,  searching  with 
his  interpretation  all  his  listeners,  carrying 
home  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  com- 
forting the  penitent  and  welcoming  three 
thousand  rejoicing  converts  to  baptism  in  a 
single  day. 

This  was  the  day  when  all  Judaistic  bonds 
were  broken,  the  swaddling  bands  thrown 


iro         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

aside,  and  the  Church  for  all  peoples,  Par- 
thians,  Medes  and  Elamites,  Mesopotamians 
and  Cappadocians,  Phrygians  and  Pamphyl- 
ians,  Libyans  and  Cyrenians,  Cretans  and 
Arabians,  entered  on  its  all-conquering  and 
universal  career.  This  day  of  Pentecost  was 
the  day  when  dispensationally  the  whole 
Church  of  God,  if  not  the  entire  world,  was 
given  a  status  within  what  the  electrician 
would  call  *'  the  field  of  force,"  wherein 
things  now  became  possible  to  the  Christian 
worker  never  before  thought  of. 

To  make  clear  my  meaning,  imagine  our- 
selves in  one  of  the  electrical  rooms  of  a  lab- 
oratory of  physics.  Here  before  me  is  a 
plain  oak  table  on  the  top  of  which  lies  a 
mass  of  loose  horseshoe  nails.  In  a  corner 
of  the  laboratory  is  a  powerful  dynamo  from 
which  two  wires  extend  to  a  point  under  the 
center  of  the  table  before  me.  So  long  as 
the  electrical  current  is  not  turned  on,  that 
heap  of  nails  lies  lifeless  and  without  affect- 
ing each  other.  But  now  let  me  turn  on  the 
current  and  immediately  the  two  poles  of 
the  currents  underneath  the  table  establish 
what  is  known  in  science  as  the  "  field  of 
magnetic  force."  This  field  extends  for 
several  feet  in  all  directions  about  the  table 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     171 

so  long  as  the  current  is  on.  I  can  now  take 
those  nails  and  mould  them  up  collectively 
into  various  forms,  as  of  a  sphere,  a  cube  or 
an  arch,  and  they  will  cling  to  each  other 
and  stay  where  I  put  them  as  if  they  were 
soldered  together.  Not  one  of  them  can  es- 
cape the  magnetic  power  ;  they  appear  like 
things  of  life  and  the  life  is  one  life.  All  of 
this  is  possible  so  long  as  *'  the  field  of  force  " 
empowered  by  the  dynamo  remains  intact. 
Let  now  that  current  of  invisible  but  potent 
fluid  be  turned  off,  and  the  figures  built  up 
before  me  would  immediately  collapse  into  a 
pile  of  lifeless,  dead  nails.  Now  what  the 
dynamo  does  for  those  nails,  that  the  atone- 
ment of  the  Lord  Jesus  plus  His  resurrection 
power  and  His  ascension,  resulting  in  the 
gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  Pentecost  on, 
did  for  the  Church  of  God,  now  composed  of 
both  Jews  and  Gentiles. 

At  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  He  sits, 
the  enthroned  personal  dynamo  for  the 
whole  world.  Now  the  Church  can  work  in 
this  '*  field  of  force  '^  what  before  was  impos- 
sible. Converts  by  multiplied  thousands 
come.  No  longer  may  peoples  be  classed 
into  creatures,  clean  and  unclean.  The 
spiritually  lame  can  be  empowered,  the  sick 


172         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

be  healed,  even  the  dead  be  raised  and  whole 
provinces  and  nations,  beginning  with  pagan 
Rome,  can  be  reckoned  in  the  empire  of  the 
Church,  for  a  new  era  has  been  ushered  in. 

Out  of  Pentecost  another  dispensational 
event  was  born,  the  most  momentous  for  the 
whole  non-Jewish  world.  That  was  the  con- 
version of  Saul  of  Tarsus,  the  most  bitter 
and  learned  of  all  the  early  persecutors.  He 
fairly  *' snorted  out  threatenings  and  slaugh- 
ters "  against  the  Christians.  He  held  the 
garments  of  them  that  stoned  the  saintly 
Stephen,  Christ's  first  martyr. 

Armed  to  the  teeth  he  starts  on  an  extraor- 
dinary crusade  to  Damascus,  a  northern  ren- 
dezvous of  Christians,  but  is  met  by  the  risen 
Lord  Himself  and  brought  to  the  light.  In 
a  moment  he  is  disarmed  and  shortly  there- 
after meets  Ananias,  is  baptized  and  departs 
into  Arabia  for  the  three  constructive  years 
of  high  instruction  in  the  school  of  Christ 
and  then  returns  to  Jerusalem  to  enter  on  his 
wondrous  apostleship  to  the  Gentiles,  the 
supreme  apostleship. 

Next  to  the  fact  of  the  incarnation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  and 
his  call  to  be  the  apostle  to  the  Gentile 
world  was  the  most  epoch-making  event  in 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     1Y3 

modern  history.  There  are  those  who  super- 
ciliously maintain  that  Paul  perverted  the 
religion  of  Jesus.  To  hear  or  read  them  one 
would  think  Paul  was  ''  the  evil  genius  of 
Christianity."     But  they  err  greatly. 

Paul  was  rather  in  his  great  epistles  the 
real  interpreter  and  expounder  of  what  the 
person  and  work  of  Christ  signified.  His 
message  was  but  an  extension  and  enforce- 
ment of  Christ's  own.  There  is  in  Paul's 
messages  nothing  foreign  to  Christ's.  We 
can  find  generally  in  Christ's  teaching  all 
that  Paul  unfolded  even  on  the  atonement, 
including  His  resurrection.  Christ,  however, 
had  to  achieve  the  atonement.  He  was  to 
become  in  His  own  person  that  atonement 
before  it  could  be  expounded  and  philoso- 
phized upon,  as  Paul  was  especially  commis- 
sioned to  do. 

Paul,  moreover,  rather  than  the  volatile 
and  effusive  Peter,  was  set  apart  as  the  arche- 
typal missionary  and  leader  of  the  whole 
Apostolic  College  in  its  world-wide  gospel 
propaganda.  While  Peter,  John  and  James 
each  had  their  important  parts  to  contribute, 
it  was  Paul  who  was,  par  excellence,  the  in- 
terpreter of  Christ's  person,  work  and  mes- 
sage to  the  heathen  race.     His  gospel,  he  al- 


174         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

ways  contended,  was  not  his  own  but  Christ's. 
He  declared  he  "  received  it  not  of  man,  nor 
from  man,  but  by  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ," 
and  he  solemnly  adjured  that  though  even 
he  or  an  angel  from  heaven  preached  any 
other  gospel,  he  might  expect  to  be  accursed 
from  Christ  in  the  great  day. 

One  other  thing  must  be  said  even  of  the 
ministry  of  the  chief  of  all  of  the  apostles  and 
of  those  who  have  entered  into  their  type  of 
ministry  until  the  present  day.  That  minis- 
try is  a  form  of  "  testimony  "  or  "  witness  '' 
to  a  great  gospel  rather  than  any  general  and 
effective  conquest  of  our  modern  world.  I 
am  afraid  that  this  word  '*  witness  "  has  been 
often  narrowly  construed  to  the  needless 
weakening  of  the  cause. 

Nevertheless,  the  equivalent  of  all  that  has 
been  achieved  on  gospel  lines  from  Pentecost 
till  now  must  be  measured  in  terms  of  the 
concept  *'  witness."  It  was  so  even  of  Christ, 
who  in  Revelation  is  called  ''  the  faithful  and 
true  witness."  It  was  so  of  Paul,  who  de- 
clared that  the  measure  of  his  ministry  was 
the  fulfillment  of  his  life  course  and  the  min- 
istry which  he  had  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
that  he  "  might  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God." 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     175 

The  human  ambition  is  to  be  the  whole 
court,  judge,  jury,  witness,  sheriff  and  execu- 
tioner. So  ambitious  are  men  to  force  the 
kingdom,  to  compel  what  they  call  conquest. 
Bat  not  so  ;  we  are  after  all  but ''  witnesses.'* 
Our  "  yea  is  to  be  yea  and  our  nay,  nay.'' 
All  the  rest  we  must  trust  to  powers  above 
and  beyond.  ''  We  have  this  treasure  in 
earthen  vessels  that  the  excellency  of  the 
power  may  be  of  God  and  not  of  us." 

In  short  we  are  now  brought  to  the  point 
where  we  must  recognize  that  there  are  yet 
to  be  brought  into  play  upon  this  problem 
*'  powers  of  the  world  to  come  "  not  yet  ap- 
plied in  any  such  way  as  they  must  be  to 
bring  in  the  kingdom.  Here  is  the  place  for 
the  historical  and  dispensational  cataclysms, 
such  as  the  present  war,  which  cause  us  to 
feel  that  back  of  all  the  phenomena  in  them- 
selves so  appalling  there  are  forces  at  work, 
which  no  gradual  and  evolutionary  process 
in  the  world  could  have  brought  about. 
What  may  yet  ensue  none  of  us  can  predict 
as  to  the  forms  things  will  assume.  But  we 
may  depend  on  it,  the  kingdom  will  surely 
come.  Whatever  goes  to  the  wall,  missions 
will    not   fail.     *'  He  shall  not  fail  nor  be 


176         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

discouraged  till  he  hath  set  judgment  in 
the  earth  and  the  isles  shall  wait  for  his 
law.'^ 

But  growing  directly  out  of  all  that  I  have 
above  said  respecting  the  historical,  stage-by- 
stage  preparation  for  the  world-wide  diffu- 
sion of  the  Gospel,  we  must  prominently 
emphasize  the  intrinsic  nature  of  the  work 
of  missions.  This  work  involves  first  of  all 
a  message — a  message  of  the  most  specific 
sort,  that  is,  the  message  of  an  atoning  God, 
bent  on  redeeming  the  world  through  His 
own  suffering,  vicarious  relation  to  it.  This 
all  became  concrete  and  visual  in  the  work 
of  Christ.  This,  on  God's  part,  was  a  last 
resort :  if  this  be  rejected  *'  there  remaineth 
no  more  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a  fearful  look- 
ing for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation 
which  shall  devour  the  adversaries."  So  the 
message  of  the  missionary  in  itself  is  an  ulti- 
mate thing. 

But  more  than  this,  the  missionary  him- 
self, in  the  spirit  and  passion  of  his  work,  is 
to  be  but  an  extended  incarnation  of  this 
message.  True,  the  atoning  work  of  Christ 
**  is  finished  "  by  Christ  Himself,  but  the  mis- 
sionary en  rapport  with  his  Lord  is  to  "  fill 
up   that  which  is  behind  of  the  sufferings 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE     171 

of  Christ  for  the  body's  sake,  which  is  His 
Church,"  in  all  lands  and  in  all  periods. 
He  is  not  to  seek  self-immolation  or  a  life  of 
suflfering  for  its  own  sake,  but  he  is  to  be  so 
given  to  his  Master's  work  that  he  will  suffer 
anything  incidental  to  its  performance.  In 
this  profound  sense  he  is  to  be  a  cross  bearer, 
a  witness — that  is,  a  veritable  **  martyr," 
counting  not  his  own  life  dear  unto  himself. 
That  is,  no  man  can  be  a  true  missionary  in 
the  deepest  sense  who  does  not  accept  this 
ultimate  contingency.  In  other  words,  the 
missionary  must  live  the  atonement  as  did 
Paul  and  Judson  and  Livingstone  and  Moffat, 
John  G.  Paton,  Chalmers  of  New  Guinea, 
and  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin  of  China.  It  re- 
quires a  profound  faith  in  the  vicarious 
atonement  to  hold  Fmen  to  these  types  of 
vicarious  living.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
evangelicals  have  always  been  the  foremost 
missionaries,  almost  exclusively  so.  Deniers 
of  the  atonement  or  doubters  thereof  find  no 
dynamic  for  the  kind  of  divine  heroism  that 
moved  Moffat  to  bare  his  breast  to  some  sav- 
age Africans  that  they  might  the  more  con- 
veniently drive  their  spears  to  his  heart, 
rather  than  turn  traitor  to  his  cause  and 
desert  the  field.     It  required  atoning  living 


ns         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

on  the  part  of  John  G.  Paton  to  face  the 
very  poisoned  arrows  and  rifles  of  New  Heb- 
rides cannibals,  rather  than  leave  them  in 
doubt  of  his  quenchless,  deathless  love  for 
them.  Nothing  but  the  divine  type  of  al- 
truistic love  held  young  Pitkin  to  make  his 
last  stand  against  the  Chinese  boxers,  wait- 
ing outside  the  gate  to  behead  him,  and  in 
his  last  message  to  his  wife  in  America  to 
express  the  desire  that  when  their  infant  son 
reached  his  majority  he  should  come  out  to 
China  and  succeed  his  father  in  bearing  the 
same  cross  in  behalf  of  the  poor  ignorant  and 
blinded  Chinese.  Such  expressions  of  man's 
love  for  man,  like  that  of  their  Lord,  are  an 
ultimate  in  this  world,  and  will  be  to  the 
end  of  time,  simply  because  the  cross  of 
Christ  itself  is  ultimate  :  God  Himself  can 
go  no  further. 

The  greatest  temptation  that  now  threatens 
the  missionary  enterprise  is  that  form  of  ap- 
peal which  would  make  it  so  easy  as  to  avoid 
the  slow  stages  of  the  cross.  Cheap  pro- 
grams, easy  conquests,  short-time  periods  for 
its  achievement,  economic  considerations, 
pooling  of  issues  among  the  societies,  the 
tendency  to  commercialize  and  secularize  the 
work  after  the  manner  of  worldly  business 


THE  MISSIONARY  ENTEEPRISE     179 

and  reduce  to  mere  philanthropies,  are  most 
seductive  and  likely  also  to  mislead.  Even 
the  martyrs  of  Christ  may  be  enticed  from 
their  high  calling  to  lower  conceptions  of 
their  task. 

When  missions  become  so  popular  that 
they  easily  divert  from  the  ideals  of  the 
atoning  Christ  to  any  form  of  undertaking, 
however  humanitarian  it  may  be,  it  is  a 
stage  of  great  peril.  The  tendency  to  ex- 
ploit evangelical  Christian  missions  in  the 
interest  of  any  end  whatever,  less  than  that 
which  Christ  proposes,  and  which  animated 
His  spiritual-minded  and  self-effacing  fol- 
lowers from  Paul  to  Carey,  Morrison,  Cal- 
vert, Bingham  and  Hudson  Taylor,  will 
simply  ruin  the  whole  precious  enterprise. 

Christ's  resurrection  errand  for  the  Church 
is  final  for  it.  This  Church  once  entered  on 
its  world-witnessing  career  from  Pentecost, 
having  **  begun  in  the  Spirit,"  will  never  "  be 
made  perfect  by  the  flesh."  It  is  not  impos- 
sible, reckoning  with  our  poor  human  nature, 
that,  even  in  churchly  ways,  the  missionary 
undertaking  may  yet  apostatize  and  the 
Church  itself  yield  to  policies  that  Christ  in 
His  supreme  temptation  refused  ;  Christian 
missions   depend   on   things  ultimate ;    and 


ISO         THE  UNSHAKEN  KINGDOM 

they  must  "  endure  throughout "  or  they 
collapse.  *'  But  we  are  persuaded  of  bet- 
ter things''  concerning  Christian  missions, 
*'  though  we  thus  speak." 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


QUESTIONS  OF  THE  FAITH 

JAMES  H.  SNOIVDEN,  D,D. 

The  Psychology  of  Religion 

Svo,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

Psychology  is  one  of  the  most  rapidly  advancing  of  modern 
sciences,  and  Dr.  Snowden's  book  will  find  a  ready  welcome. 
While  especially  adapted  for  the  use  of  ministers  and  teach- 
ers, it  is  not  in  any  sense  an  ultra-academic  work.  This  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  material  forming  it  has  been 
delivered  not  only  as  a  successful  Summer  School  course,  but 
in  the  form  of  popular  lectures,  open  to  the  general  public. 

WILLIAM  HALLOCK  JOHNSON,  Ph.D.,  P.P. 

Profiss»r  of  Greek  and  New  Testament  Literature  in  Lincoln  University,  Fa. 

The  Christian  Faith  under  Modern 
Searchlight 

The  L.  P.  Stone  Lectures,  Princeton.  Intro- 
duction by  Francis  L.  Patton,  D.D.    Cloth,  net  $1.25. 

The  faith  which  is  to  survive  must  not  only  be  a  traditional 
but  an  intelligent  faith  which  has  its  roots  in  reason  and  ex- 
perience and  its  blossom  and  fruit  in  character  and  good 
works.  To  this  end,  the  author  examines  the  fundamentals 
of  the  Christian  belief  in  the  light  of  to-day  and  reaches  the 
conclusion  that  every  advance  in  knowledge  establishes  its 
sovereign  claim  to  be  from  heaven  and  not  from  men. 

ANPREJV  W.  ARCHIE  ALP,   P.P. 


Author  of  '■^The  Bible  Verified,"  '■^The  Trend  of  th*  Centuries,"  etc. 

The  Modern  Man  Facing  the  Old 
Problems 

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A  thoughtful,  ably-conducted  study  in  which  those  prob- 
lems of  human  life,  experience  and  destiny,  which,  in  one 
form  or  another,  seem  recurrent  in  every  age,  are  examined 
from  what  may  be  called  a  Biblical  viewpoint.  That  is  to  sajr, 
the  author  by  its  illuminating  rays,  endeavors  to  find  eluci- 
dation and  solution  for  the  difficulties,  which  in  more  or  less 
degree,   perplex  believer  and  unbeliever  alike. 

NOLAN   RICE   BEST  Editor  of  « The  Continent" 

Applied  Religion  for  Everyman 

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Nolan  Rice  Best  has  earned  a  well-deserved  reputation  in 
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represent  his  best  efforts,  and  contains  an  experienced  edi- 
tor's suggestions  for  the  ever-recurrent  problems  confronting 
Church  members  as  a  body,  and  as  individual  Christians.  Mr. 
Best  wields  a  facile  pen,  and  a  sudden  gleam  of  beauty,^  a 
difficult  thought  set  in  a  perfect  phrase,  or  an  old  idea  in- 
vested with  new  meaning  and  grace,  meets  one  at  every  turn 
of  the  page."— r/i^  Record  Herald. 


BIBLE  STUDY,  PEVOTIONAU  Etc> 

A.    T.    ROBERTSON,  P.P.,  LLP. 

Studies  in  the  New  Testament 

A  Handbook  for  Bible  Classes  in  Sunday  Schools, 
for  Teacher  Training  Work,  for  use  in  Secondary- 
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In  it  are  no  references  to  books  of  any  kind  outside  the 
Bible.  With  the  help  of  the  maps  and  a  New  Testament  one 
can  study  this  work  with  no  other  books  in  hand. 

REV.   JOSEPH  T.  GIBSON,   P.P. 

Jesus  Chri^  :   The  Unique  Rcvealcr  of  God 

8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

The  author  has  sought  to  see,  and  aid  others  in  seeing 
Jesus  Christ  as  He  is  presented  in  the  Scriptures.  He  has 
compiled  a  "Life"  neither  critical  nor  iconoclastic,  but  de- 
signed for  those  who  regard  the  Word  of  God  as  being  not 
only  the  infalliable  gruide  to  faith  and  duty,  but  the  authentic 
chronicle  of  the  earthly  life  of  our  Lord.  Dr.  Gibson  has 
harmonized  the  Gospels  and  from  them  constructed  a  graphic 
narrative  which,  contrives,  to  re-limn  an  old  picture  with 
freshness  and  charm. 

REV.    GEO.    H.    YOUNG,  M.A.y  Asn  Prof.  Rhetoric  and  PublU 

'  Speakine,  Colgate  Univirtity 

The  Illustrative  Teachings  of  Jesus 

The  Parables,  Similies  and  Metaphors  of  Christ. 
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as  the  'Teacher  come  from  God,*  and  revealing  in  life,  con- 
tent of  instruction  and  method  of  presentation  the  will  of 
the  Father." — Review  and  Expositor. 

W.  BEATTY  JENNINGS,   P.P. 

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In  a  series  of  twenty  studies,  the  teachings  of  Jesus  are  ap- 
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pleasure,  war,  the  drink  traffic,  etc.,  and  shown  to  be  the  sur« 
and  only  solution  of  the  problems  of  society. 

ROBERT  FREEMAN 

The  Hour  of  Prayer 

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dren,  nurses  and  others  who  are  unable  to  attend  public  wor* 
ship,  the  book  will  particularly  appeaL" — Buffalo  BMpmt^ 


ESSAYS,  SlUDIES,  ADDRESSES 


PROF.  HUGH  BLACK 

The  New  World 

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_  "The  old  order  changeth,  bringing  in  the  new.'*  To  a  re- 
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distinguishes  all  his  writings  and  thinking.  Especially  does  he 
face  the  problem  of  the  present-day  unsettlement  and  unr«at 
in  religious  beliefs  with  sanity  and  courage,  furnishing  in  this, 
as  in  other  aspects  of  his  enquiry,  a  new  viewpoint  and  clari- 
fied outlook. 

S.  D.  GORDON 

Quiet  Talks  on  John's  Gospel 

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Mr.  Gordon  halts  his  reader  here  and  there,  at  some  pre- 
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pleading  for  consecrated  service.  An  enheartening  book,  and 
a  restful.  A  book  of  the  winning  Voice,  of  outstretched 
Hands. 

ROBERT  F.    HORTON,  P.P. 

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perience. Tke  message  of  a  thinker  and  a  saint,  which  will 
be  found  to  be  very  helpful." — Christian  Intelligencer. 

BISHOP  IFALTER  R.    LAMBUTH 

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This  Lecture-Course  is  a  spirited  contribution  to  the  dy- 
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spiration and  power  in  the  lives  of  missionaries,  native  and 
foreign,  who  with  supreme  abandon  gave  themselves  utterly 
to  the  work  to  which  they  were  called. 

FREDERICK  F.  SHANNON,   P.P. 

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gifts  of  felicitous  and  epigrammatic  expression.  This  new  vol- 
ume by  the  popular  preacher  is  a  oontribution  of  distinct  valut 
to  current  tenuonic  literature. 


BIBLE  STUDY 


REV.  MARTIN  ANSTEY,  M.A. 

How  to  Understand  the  Bible 

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of  inspiration,  historicity,  criticism,  etc.,  is  that  the  Bible  is 
the  unassailable  revelation  of  the  mind  and  will  of  God. 

WILLIAM  EVANS,  DP. 

Epochs  in  the  Life  of  Chri^ 

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presenting  cogent  and  concrete  arguments  for  their  inviola- 
bility and  acceptance  as  chief  among  the  tenets  of  the  Cbris- 
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popular  style, 

THROUGH  THE  BIBLE.  BOOK  BY  BOOK 

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each  Friday  night,  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred 
people  have  met  together  for  this  form  of  Bible  study."— 
Preface. 

REV.  CLARENCE  EDWARD  MACARTNEY 

The  Parables  of  the  Old  Testament 

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Testament  are  searchingly  analyzed  and  given  a  new  sig> 
nificance  and  spiritual  interpretation." — Christian  Work, 


BIBLE  STUDY 


JAMES  M.    GRAY,     P.P.  Dean  of  Moody  Bibl,  Institute 

Christian  Workers'  Commentary  on  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  cioth,  net,  $2.25. 

"At  last!  A  truly  competent  commentary  on  the  whole 
Bible  in  one  volume,  and  for  a  price  within  the  reach  of  all. 
These  are  desiderata  long  agreed  upon,  but  never,  in  a  really 
popular  sense,  met  before,  Dr,  Gray  brought  to  the  task  of 
producing  such  a  book  the  powers  at  their  maturity  that  have 
made  him  one  of  the  foremost  Bible  teachers  of  the  English- 
speaking  world.  Clearness  of  thought;  the  mastery  of  con- 
densed expression  without  the  sacrifice  of  lucidity;  immensa 
industry;  adequate  scholarship;  thoroughness;  a  joyoug 
trust  in  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures," — Dr.  C.  1,  ScoHeld,  «4 
S.  S.  Times. 

ROBERT  E.  SPEER,   P.P. 

John's  Gospel 

The  Greatest  Book  in  the  World.  Leatherette, 
net  6oc. 

A  «tudy  of  John's  Gospel  by  a  man  whose  far-reaching:  in- 
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in  America.  The  material  here  brought  together  has  already 
been  "tried-out"  by  Dr.  Speer  at  some  important  student  ooa- 
ferences  with  conspicuous  success, 

G.    CAMPBELL  MORGAN 

Living  Messages  of  the  Books  of  the 

"Bible,  Vol.  1.       Old  Testament— Genesis  to  Malachi 

Living  Messages  of  the  Books  of  the 

Bible,  Vol.  II.  N'ew Testament— Matthevz-Revelatioa 
8vo,  cloth,  each  net  $1.25, 

This  popular  four  volume  set  is  now  published  in  two,  each 
volume  containing  twice  the  amount  previously  included. 
This  work  is  quite  distinct  from  the  author's  "Analyzed 
Bible."  "Each  book  is  treated  as  a  unit,  having  a  message  or 
messages  for  our  own  times." — The  United  Presbyterian. 

MARCUS  POPS^  P.P. 


The  Parables  of  Our  Lord 

A  new  edition.  In  one  volume.  International 
Leaders'  Library.    Net  50c;  postage  extra. 

"The  author  occupies  a  foremost  place  among  evangelical 
writers  of  our  times.  His  writings,  while  scholarly,  are  at  the 
•ame  time  simple  in  statement,  practical  in  purpose,  and  de- 
vout in  spirit." — Religious  Telescope. 

W.    O.    E.     OESTERLEY,    P.P.  Warden  of  the  Sodet,  ^f 

*  '  the  Aptcrafha 

The  Books  of  th^  Apocrypha 

Thdr  Origin,  Teaching  and  Contents,    Net  $3-00. 

The  author  has  presented  a  highly  satisfactory  piece  of 
work.  Besides  what  would  be  naturally  looked  for  in  a  work 
of  this  »ort — an  introduction  to  the  books  of  the  Apocrypha, 
■ctiotmt  of  tieir  contents,  date  of  writing,  etc., — this  book  co<«- 
taiifa  £m  astonishing  mass  of  useful  and  interesfrng  matter  of 


EARLIER  WORKS  IN  DEMAND 

WAYNE  WHIPPLE 

The  Story-Life  of  the  Son  of  Man 

8vo,  illustrated,  net  $2.50. 

"A  literary  mosaic,  consisting  of  quotations  from  a  greaj 
number  of  writers  concerning  all  the  events  of  the  Gospels. 
The  sub-title  accurately  describes  its  contents.  That  sub- 
title is  'Nearly  a  thousand  stories  from  sacred  and  secular 
sources  in  a  continuous  and  complete  chronicle  of  the  earth 
life  of  the  Saviour.'  The  book  was  prepared  for  the  general 
reader,  but  will  be  valuable  to  minister,  teacher  and  student. 
There  are  many  full-page  engravings  from  historic  paintings 
and  sacred  originals,  some  reproduced  for  the  first  time."— 
Christian  Observer. 

GAIUS  GLENN  ATKINS,  P.P. 

Pilgrims  of  the  Lonely  Road 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.50, 

"A  rare  book  for  its  style,  its  theme  and  the  richness  of 
its  insight.  Seldom  is  seen  a  book  of  more  exquisite  grace 
of  diction — happy  surprises  of  phrase,  and  lovely  lengths  of 
haunting  prose  to  delight  the  eye.  Each  of  the  great  pil- 
grim's studies  is  followed  step  by  step  along  the  lonely  way 
of  the  soul  in  its  quest  of  light,  toward  the  common  goal  of 
all — union  with  the  eternal." — Chicago  Record-Herald. 

S.  P.  GORPON    r 

Quiet  Talks  on  Following  The  Chri^ 

-"^mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 

"Tnis  volume  is  well  calculated  to  aid  in  Christian  life,  tta 
give  strength,  courage  and  light  on  difficult  problems.  It 
grips  one's  very  life,  brings  one  face  to  face  with  God's 
word,  ways  of  understanding  it  and,  even  its  every  day  a-p- 
plication.  It  is  plain,  clear,  direct,  no  confusion  of  dark 
sentences." — Bapt.  Observer, 

G.  CAMPBELL  MORGAN,  P.P. 


The  Teaching  of  Chri^ 

A  Companion  Volume  to  *'The  Crises  of  The 
Christ."    8vo,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

"One  does  not  read  far  before  he  is  amazed  at  the  clear  and 
logical  grasp  Dr.  Morgan  has  upon  divine  truths.  Could  a 
copy  of  this  book,  with  its  marvelous  insight,  its  straightfor- 
wardness, its  masterly  appeal,  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  our 
church  leaders,  it  would  go  far  toward  negativing  the  spir- 
itual barrenness  of  destructive  criticism.  Here  is  a  work 
that  may  profitably  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  the  minister's 
library." — Augsburg   Teacher. 

ZEPHINE  HUMPHREY 

The  Edge  of  the  Woods  And  other  Papew 

''  i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

"Sane  optimism,  an  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  and  a 
delicate  humor  pervades  the  book  which  is  one  for  lover*  oi 
real  literature  to  enjoy." — Pittsburgh  Post. 


Princeton  ThMJogiilffia 

1012  01236  2895 


